The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-01 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 1, 1865.

The affair of the captives in Abyssinia is one of
those irritating things which prove the mistaken
policy of our Foreign-office at present. From be-
ginning to end Earl RUSSELL has made a complete
muddle of the matter. The Emperor THEODORE
has been alternately neglected in an unbearing
manner, and suffered to vent his ungoverned rage
upon the unhappy men who have fallen into his
power. It is nothing to the people of this country
whether the despot of that distant place be satisfied
or not, if he thinks he is treated with the respect
due to a descendant of SoLomori, but they
are concerned to know that a fellow-countryman, a
subject of the British Crown, is being ill-used,
and that our Government is either unable or un-
willing to protect him, or obtain his release. It is
some time now since the confusion occurred which
has resulted in such a misfortune to Captain CAME-
RON. Last session Ministers were interrogated on
the subject in both Houses of Parliament, and very
vague and unsatisfactory replies were given. The
burden of their discourse was, as usual, the old cry
that we could not go to war, and that we had better
not irritate and exasperate the irascible and omni-
potent EMPEROR any more. Doubtless by this time
many persons thought that the English Con-
sul was at liberty, but no such happy ter-
mination has ensued. We now meet with
a despatch of Earl RUSSELL'S, addressed to
Col. STANTON, her MAJESTY'S Consul-General and
Agent in Egypt. In the voluminous affair the
noble lord endeavours to explain what is the policy
of the British Government respecting Abyssinia.
The conclusion he arrives at, after an elaborate
analysis of events, is that our Government believe
it advisable to withdraw as much as possible from
Abyssinian engagements of alliance and British
interference in Abyssinia, because of the short
tenure of power of the Abyssinian Kings, and the
difficulty of reaching their seat of empire with a
regular British force, and other reasons
The noble lord goes on to
duly certified.
State that the adoption
of this course
has given rise to much misrepresentation
in various quarters, and some have gone so far as
to say that Captain CAMERON is being detained as
a hostage for the recognition of the independence
of Abyssinia, for the suppression of Egyptian aggres_
sions along the frontier, and also for the restitution
of the church and convent at Jerusalem, of whichthe
EMPEROR was dispossessed by the Turks and others.
Earl RUSSELL shows the fallacy of these supposi-
tions ; for, in the first place, the recognition of
Abyssinia was made in 1849, and since, then Eng-
land has asked for the recognition of the Treaty then
made, but the Emperor THEODORE refused it. Still

this country has never withdrawn the recognition
of independence made at the period referred to.
With respect to the other matters, England can-
not guarantee the integrity of the Abyssinian ter-
ritory, but she has from time to time used her
influence to prevent, as far as possible, a•ny aggres-
sion on the part of Egypt. As for the convent
and church at Jerusalem, Earl RUSSELTU quotes a
reply of Lord MALMESBURY'S in 1852, when he was
appealed to by Bishop GABAT, at Jerusalem, on
behalf of some who desired his assistance. As stated
in this despatch, the answer was very clear and
decisive. Lord MALMESBURY distinctly refused to
" protect officially the natives of Abyssinia who
may chance to be residing in the territory of the
Sublime Porte," but her MAJESTY'S Consul at
Jerusalem was instructed to use his good offices in
their behalf. Earl RUSSELL was so satisfied with this
view of the matter that he authorised Consul FINN
in 1862 to carry out those instructions given in 1852,
observing, " I have nothing to add to these instruc-
tions except to enjoin you to act upon them with
caution and prudence," and these rules still remain
in force. Respecting the imprisonment of Consul
CAMERON, Lord RUSSELL observes that he went to
the country of Bogos, where he busied himself in
reconciling some rival chiefs, and sent the EMPE-
non's letter to the QUEEN on to Massowah by the
Abyssinian messenger. The EMPEROR was
chiefly indignant with the Consul on account of
this journey to Bogos, which, joined with his sus-
picion that the Consul had intrigued to set the
Turks and Egyptians of the frontier against him,
" was aggravated, in some degree, by the return of
Consul CAMERON to Gondar, without any answer
to the EMPEROR'S letter to the QUEEN." This affair
of the answer was very badly managed at head-
quarters ; and although Lord RUSSELL endeavours to
gloss it over, there can be no doubt that it gave rise
to many awkward surmises and injurious suspicions
on the part of the Emperor THEODORE and those
around him. It is always a mistake to neglect any
forms or observances in the intercourse with
foreign States, by which terms of courtesy are
maintained, and certainly all those connected with
this Abyssinian confusion have had cause to rue
the day when our Government was so lax in its
management and so tardy in acknowledging the
communication of the Emperor. Then follow
some recapitulations of the affronts which the Em-
peror alleges Consul CAMERON to have put upon
him, such as " calling him a murderer," and stay-
ing with the Turks, and stating that he had not
received any intelligence concerning the letter sent
by the Queen.
Earl RUSSELL disclaims the notion that the Con-
sul really incited the Egyptian forces on the frontier
to concoct aggressions on Abyssinian territory, and
adds, which is likely enough, that it is most probable
the British enemies in Abyssinia took advantage of
the occurrence to prejudice the EMPEROR against the
Consul. " But," says the noble lord, "in going to
Bogos certainly Consul CAMERON acted without
orders, and incurred the displeasure of his own
Government." It is now trusted that Mr. RAS-
SAM'S explanation will procure the release of the
unfortunate Consul, and then he need never return
to Abyssinia. There is much sound sense in the re-
marks which Earl RUSSELL makes concerning the non-
interference of England with the disputes arising
between Abyssinia and other States, but at the same
time it cannot be said that the noble lord speaks with
sufficient decision concerning the unjustifiable de-
tention of Consul CAMERON. If this gentleman has
acted indiscreetly, his own Government should have
recalled him and censured him, explaining their dis-
satisfaction to the EMPEROR ; but it is not at all the
thing to permit, with impunity, that a representa-
tive of this country should be insulted and ill-
treated. The precedent is a dangerous one to
establish, and the sooner our Foreign-office changes
its tactics the better for the welfare of its emissaries
and the honour of the country.

The American people are never wanting in cou
rage and self-reliance. Most people would be
somewhat startled to find themselves left after a
gigantic war with crippled resources and embar-
rassed finances—a debt reckoned by thousands of
millions of dollars, and external and internal
sources of perplexity and annoyance. Our good
friends of the States, however, were by no means
dismayed at the spectacle which presented itself to
their consideration after the collapse of the South,
and the violent death of the Northern President.
So far at least the event has justified their confi-
dence. The Southern States, thanks to the wise
policy of Mr. JOHNSON, are rapidly subsiding into
tranquillity ; the negro question is growing
less momentous, trade and commerce are reviving,
and so long as peace is kept abroad, and forbear-
ance and temperance shown at home, there is
reason to hope that the fortunes of the States may
flourish, and that the heavy clouds which have so
long overshadowed the great Republic of the West
may gradually disperse themselves. No doubt
there are still grave causes for uneasiness and
dangerous elements of discord and disturbance in
existence. The chief men on both sides have
shown themselves laudably anxious to heal the
breach, and to show the people an example of unity
and forbearance. General LEE, upon whom all
eyes were fixed, and whose example every
honourable and patriotic man felt he might
safely follow, has not hesitated to sub-
scribe the oath of allegiance aad amnesty,
in which he swears that he will "henceforth faith-
fully support, protect, and defend the Constitution
of the United States and the union of the States
thereunder." The promise to support all laws made
" with reference to the emancipation of the slaves"
must have cost him less, for his anxiety to recruit
his failing forces by negro troops during the last
year of the war was well known. The fact of Gen.
LEE'S having taken Iho oath at all will be an en-
couragement to those who think, rightly enough,
that since the scheme of Southern Independence,
so long dreamed of and gallantly battled for, has,
for the time at least, completely failed, the wisest
and kindest thing to be done is to reconcile the
1 Southern people to the Federal domination, and to
blot out all trace, as far as possible, of the angry and
vengeful feelings left by the war. The dead, in-
deed, who have cumbered the battlefields, cannot be
called back to life ; the sick and maimed cannot
regain their health and vigour, nor obtain release
from suffering ; the widow and orphan cannot be
restored to their former ease and happiness, nor the
cheerful homes, the rich pastures, the fertile fields

and the prosperous cities -which Northern armies
have desolated and laid waste, lose traces of the
enemy and the spoiler. But it remedies none of
these evils, it redresses no wrongs and re-
lieves no sufferings to keep up feuds and bitter-
ness between the two great sections of the

American people, and those persons, whether
_ . .

preachers, journalists, politicians, or philanthropists
who busy themselves in fanning the flames of dis-
cord, instead of endeavouring to restore concord
and kindly feeling, are grievously to blame. " Our
people," says a writer in Philadelphia, 44 wish to
forget the war and not to have its ashes perpetually
stirred," and since the Southern populations have
accepted their hard-fate with dignity laid patience,
the conduct of a fanatical party in the North is the
more deserving of censure. So bitter and vinclic-