The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TIMES.—The friends of Sir James Hudson, with I
a natural anxiety that the services of so eminent a
public man, though lost to us in the position in
which he could render the greatest advantage to us
and the greatest honour to himself, should not be
wholly withdrawn from the public, have, we are
told, entertained the idea of bringing him forward
as a candidate for a seat in the House of Commons.
We are not sanguine as to the success of Sir James
Hudson in such a career. A life spent in the toils
of the Chancellery is but a bad preparation for the
conflicts of a popular Assembly, and few men
have attained success in the House of Commons
who have entered it in the decline of life. The
very idea, however, of such a thing reminds us
that it is time our countrymen should know what
manner of man Sir James Hudson is, and what are
the circumstances which have occasioned his loss to
England and to Italy. We are not in the habit of
looking to our diplomatic service as one of those
institutions of which Englishmen have any parti-
cular reason to be proud. It often happens that
when an unseen emergency arises at a foreign
Court our diplomatic representative proves him-
self unfit to meet it, and we 'have not un-
frequently invited comparisons between our own
State papers and those of foreign countries by
no means to the advantage of England. It is
only the barest justice to Sir James Hudson to
say that during a service extending now over
a period of nearly 30 years he has acted in different
diplomatic capacities with great energy, ability,
and success, and in a manner exceedingly conducive
to the interests of this country. We will confine
our attention to the last two missions which he has
filled. In Brazil he succeeded in patting an end to
the slave trade, and thus not only greatly promoted
the cause of humanity, for which England has made
so many sacrifices, but, by shutting up one of the
principal marts for human flesh, reduced the
blockade of the African coast and the labours of our
squadron within much more manageable dimen-
sions. If another diplomatist were to arise who
wculd do us the same good office at the
Court of Spain, he would occasion a considerable
relief to our finances and a very grateful diminu-
tion of the moat unhealthy and distasteful duty
which the English navy is called upon to perform.
In 1851 Sir James Hudson was sent to the Court of
Turin, and the object of his mission was communi-
cated to him by Lord Palmerston in these memorable
words :—" You have been so successful in liberating
black bodies that 1 send you now to liberate white
minds." The task which devolved on Sir James
Hudson was in all respects a most important one.
Shortly before his arrival at Turin the liberties of
France were overwhelmed by a sudden blow, from
which they have never since recovered. The reaction
against the excesses of 1848 was general and de-
cisive all over Europe, The Emperor Nicholas
was at the very summit of his grandeur and in-
fluence, and freedom of speech, printing, and
action was tolerated nowhere in Europe be-
yond the limits of the British Isles, the Repub-
lic of Switzerland, and the little monarchy
of Belgium. The duty which Sir James Hudson
undertook was to watch over the movement which
was destined to rescue Italy from the crimes and
miseries of nearly 400 years, and to restore her to
her legitimate place in the first ranks of European
civilisation. Sir James Hudson had the sagacity to
see the real importance of the small kingdom of
Piedmont. He established a personal friendship
with the King which, free from servility on the one
side or undue assumption on the other, has been
highly honourable to both, and of the greatest ad-
vantage to Piedmont, to Italy, and to England. He
recognised in Count Cavour the man whose talents
and energies—nay, perhaps, whose very faults—
eminently fitted him to work out the regeneration
of Italy ; and, having found his man, Sir James
Hudson gave him all the assistance which his posi-
tion as the representative, and his experience as the
citizen, of a tree country enabled him to give, and
which his hearty goodwill to the cause of Italian
independence prompted him to give to the utmost.
It is the nature of services rendered by persons act-
ing in a diplomatic capacity to the nation at the
Court of which they reside never to be fully known
or completely understood. But the instinct of Italy
has truly divined that Sir James Hutson has been
one of the most efficient causes of that " good
estate," as Rienzi would have called it, which she
has at present attained. Since the premature death
of Count Cavour the presence at the Court of Turin
of a person notoriously the partner of his plans and
the depositary of his secrets has been of inestimable
value. We know not why we should confine our-
selves to the past tense. Unhappily the state of
Italy is not yet so sure or so tranquil that she can
dispense with any of that guidance under which she
has succeeded so far beyond her hopes. The lancet
of the learned surgeons of Turin has cut short the
inestimable life of Count Cavour, but France isst still
in Rome, Austria in Venice, and murder is still
in
rife
under the pretence of political partisanship
Southern Italy. Cavour is gone, but Hudsonstill
remained, all the more valuable from
statesman with whom he so heartily the
loss of the
co-operated.
with no more
Supposing him to exercise his office
than avenge ability—which is which
as h
Sir James Hudson
y no means the case
--the presence of such a man
would be at this moment of inestimable value to
Italy. Whoever his successor might be, he must
labour for many years before he could attain the
same position of " influence and authority as Sir
James Hudson enjoyed. He may counsel as wisely,

he may mean as honsstly, but he cannot all at once
invest himself with that influence and authority in
the Councils of a foreign State which long time and
signal success can alone bestow. The withdrawal
of Sir James Hudson from Turin is the taking away
of that which we cannot replace—the sacrifice of a
vast amount of personal influence highly beneficial
to Italy, and exceedingly valuable to England.
Why, then, in the fulness of his usefulness, at the
very height of that public consideration which his
eminent services and his unshaken fidelity have
earned for him, is Sir James Hudson withdrawn
from the Mission of Turin ? As far as form goes,
the act appears to be his own ; but we are assured
that he resigns his mission unwillingly. and this
assertion is confirmed by the fact that he does not
intend to return to England, but to end his days
amid the scenes which have been the witnesses of
his.
anxieties and success. We are told that the
thing is all a mistake, and that if we lose prema-
turely the services of the man who is above all others
able to promote our interests and policy in Italy, it
is entirely due to the inevitable consequences of an
unhappy misunderstanding. We hope we shall not
be thought to express ourselves too bluntly if we
say that we do not find any reason for supposing
that there was any misunderstanding at all. The
facts are these—Nearly three years ago there existed
an intention at the Foreign-office of translating Sir
James Hudson from Turin to a higher post. The
announcement gave great dissatisfaction in this
country, some communications passed between the
Italian and English Governments, and the: idea
was for the time dropped. In March, 1862, Sir
James Hudson was informed that he would be ap-
pointed to an Embassy, and would have to vacate
his Mission in Turin in July. He answered that
his health was too much shattered to undertake a
new Mission, and that he was too much bound up
with Italy to wish for any other. He proposed,
however, to meet Lord Russell's views by re-
tiring from Turin in August of this year, at
which time he would have served long enough
to entitle him to a diplomatic pension. Pur-
suant to this proposal Sir James sent in his
resignation in April of this year, and it was accepted
by the Foreign-office, as it is said, under a mistake,
the mistake being that the resignation was offered
voluntarily, and not merely in pursuance of an en-
gagement almost forced upon the Minister by the
pressure of the Foreign-office in the preceding year.
Of course, the notion of a mistake is quite out of
the question. The Foreign-office authorities could
not have forgotten in April, 1863, their own pro-
posal to Sir James Hudson in August, 1862. They
must have known that twice in two years they had
attempted to remove him from his position, and
could not be ignorant that the pressure they had
put upon their Minister left him little option but
to offer his resignation, if he did not wish to be
removed by a formal act of his superiors.
HERALD.--The letter of " Historicus," which was
published in the Times of yesterday, in justification
of the seizure of the steam rams in Messrs. Laird's
yard at Birkenhead, is deserving of comment, not
from the intrinsic weight of its arguments, but from
the factitious authority which it receives by means
of the prominence assigned to it in the colums of
our contemporary. It is a subject of regret that the
sound and unpretentious letters of " Phocion"
should have been allowed to cede their place to the
flimsy and arrogant productions of "Historicus,"
whose supreme dogmatism and authoritative air
may induce the public to attach greater importance
to his conclusions than they justly merit. It was
stated as a profound truth in a letter of Mr. Vernon
Lushington's, upon which we have before com-
mented, that international law is not fixed but pro-
gressive. We should, perhaps, be more
.inclined to
designate this statement as a truism, wnich it was
unnecessary to parade with all the circumstances
of a great discovery. We should certainly be the
last to deny that there must be such a growth in
all human laws which cannot be made for all
time, but which must be adapted to the advanc-
ing civilisation of mankind. Nor should we for
a moment dispute the proposition, that inter-
national law, controlled by certain fixed and
established principles, must grow with our growth
in mechanical appliances and in the science of
mutual destruction. But we have yet to learn that
that growth is so rapid, so fitful, and so sudden, as
the growth manifested in the letters of " Historicus."
Is the growth of international law to be taken to be
coincident with the growth of the opinions of "His-
toricus ?" For if so, the international law of to-day
must be taken to be directly contradictory to the
international law of six months back. The oracular
utterances of "Historicus" of the spring are
strangely discordant with those of the autumn. His
inconsistencies of argument and conclusion have
been brought into vivid contrast by our able corre-
sponent " Vigilans." The varying course of his
opinions may be regulated by some law of deviation
of which we are ignorant. It is only remarkable
that it has been in accordance with the action of
the Government. " Historicus," in pity for the
ignorance of mankind, has set himself to illuminate
it with a modicum of that light of which, up to the
present time, he is conscious that he has had a mo-
nopoly, Not insensible to his own condescension in
so doing he has come down from the airy heights
of legal science in which he must be taken usually
to dwell in order to justify the seizure of the steam
rams by order of the Government. In the first
place, he lays down the indisputable proposition
that the Foreign Enlistment Act, as being the law
of England, must be enforced. But he goes rather
too far when he says (after stating it to be the
better opinion that that act is merely a municipal
law and not an embodiment of international law)
that it must be enforced against all persons who
seek to violate or evade it, whether they be within
or without the realm. However, that may pass as a
mere trifling inaccuracy. He then calls attention
to an intercepted correspondence which was com-
municated by Mr. Adams to the English Govern-
ment, and which undoubtedly points to the fact
that a special mission had been organised, and
that a special fund had been provided by the
Confederate Government for the purpose of obtain-
ing iron-clad steam vessels from this country.
But he omits to give us any evidence which
will connect the rams building in Messrs. Laird's
yard with the iron-clad steamers which have
apparently been contracted for by the Confede-
rates. He seems to think that such evidence may
be dispensed with. He asks, with an air of triumph,
" if these ships are not intended for the Confederate
Government, for whom were they intended ?" He
says that if it is no longer a matter of inference but
a matter of certainty, that certain iron-clad vessels
have been ordered by the Confederate Government,
we must conclude that the two rams at Birkenhead
are being built in execution of that order ; for if
these particular ships were intended for some other
and pacific Government, " their destination should
be avowed, and their purchasers vouched:" Pre-
sumptions of criminality are new to the jurispru-
dence of this country. Are we to assume guilt
until innocence is proved, or are we to fabricate
evidence where the necessary link in the chain is
wanting ? But even supposing it can be proved
that these vessels are being built for the Confederate
Government by such evidence as will satisfy the
just requirements of English law, it is exceedingly
questionable whether such a result would be an
infringement of the Foreign Enlistment Act.
Historicus tells us that it is so ; but we prefer to
take the opinion of the Chief Baron, in the case of
the Alexandra. It has been without reason assumed
that because a vessel is clad in iron and has an iron
beak, it is necessarily within the terms of this act,
which was expressly framed for the purpose of pre-
venting filibustering expeditions being made from
this country against countries with which it was at
peace. It is a much more reasonable construction
of this act, keeping its origin in view, that it was
only meant to prevent vessels being sent forth from
this country as completely prepared as one of our
own men of war for hostile operations, in point of
men, guns, and equipment. " Historicus" quotes
the case of the Irresistible as in point, and as
analogous to the case of these rams. The Irre-
sistible was purchased by a belligerent power, and
sailed out of the port of Baltimore, armed and
manned as a vessel of war, for the pu_rpose of being
emplayed as a cruiser against a nationThweithshalhlo
the United States was at peace. wewm
device which was adopted for the purpose of
eluding the Foreign Enlistment Act was this—
the arms and ammunition were cleared out as cargo,
and the men were enlisted in form, as for a common
mercantile voyage. The Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States decided that
to permit such a contrivance as this to prevent the
operation of the act would make their neutrality
"a fraudulent one, and one which was disgraceful to
their Government, and of which no nation would be
the dupe." This decision is incontrovertible, but it
has no bearing upon the present case, except in so
far as it may be taken to show that this act is in-
tended to prevent vessels of war which are com-
pletely fitted for military operations leaving the
ports of a neutral power for the purpose of carrying
on war against a
‘friendly belligerent under the
flimsy pretext of commercial enterprise. To
class the case of the Irresistible with that of these
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