The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—There is every reason to hope that peace,
abroad as well as at home, will be the leading aim
of President Johnson's policy. Few could have ex-
pected that one who denounced rebellion so sternly
would display such moderation and humanity in the
hour of triumph, or that so eager a partisan would
prove capable of rising so far aboveparty influences.
Perhaps Mr. Johnson himself, like his predecessor,
Mr. Lincoln, hardly foresaw the mellowing effect
of responsibility upon his earlier views, and would
freely admit that, in his short experience of office,
he has both learnt and forgotten much. This power
of rapid self-adaptation is an eminently American
virtue, and it has infinitely facilitated the work of
pacification in the South. The Southerners do not
pretend to have altered their private convictions, but
they look facts in the face, and; finding the question
of slavery settled once for all by force of arms, they
make the best of it and cheerfully rejoin the Union.
The same good sense and readiness to let bygones be
bygones have been shown by the Northern people,
and still more remarkably by the Government.
What concerns us, however, more nearly is the pre-
sent attitude of the United States towards foreign
Powers, and here again it isbut just to acknowledge
that our fears have not been realised. Even Mr.
Cobden firmly believed that a declaration of war
against the Mexican Empire would follow immediately
upon the subjugation of tie South, but nothing of
the kind has yet taken place, or appears to be con-
templated. Our own relations with the Washington
Government have never been more friendly since
France and England, in justice to the United States
as well as to themselves, recognised the Confederates
as belligerents. Mr. Seward, indeed, took exception
to the terms in which Lord Russell announced the
withdrawal of that recognition, but he coupled his
remonstrances with assurances of his desire not only
to preserve amity, but:to establish " a lasting and in-
timate friendship between the two nations." 'fhe
sincerity of this desire is fully appreciated in this
country, and the remembrance of any misunder-
standings that may have arisen in the course of the
war is becoming fainter anc fainter every day on
this side of the Atlantic. Itis, therefore, peculiarly
vexatious to hear that one soiree of irritation, which
ought long since to have been closed, is still kept
open by the proceedings of Shenandoah, which
continues to rove the seas under a Confederate flag.

We have already called ;he attention of our
readers to the depredations of this cruiser—the only
relic of a flotilla which once numbered five steamers
and four sailing vessels. In spite of positive infor-
mation that the Confederacy was crushed, that
President Davis was a prisoner, and that all the
Southern Generals had laid down their arms, Capt.
Waddell chose to wait for an official notification of

it from a Government which no longer existed, and
to pursue, in the meantime, Es buccaneering voyage.
Having planned a kind of ()able among the whalers
of the Northern Pacific, h 3 was engaged, by the

last accounts, in burning one after another, and it
was believed that he would succeed in destroying
the whole fleet. Such ravages had never been com-
mitted by the Alabama herself during the height of
the war, and they, of course, infuriated the mer-
cantile community at S.. fr.ncisco, to which port
many of these ships belonged. The ne%%. 11,Lb athee
reached the United States, and our Washington
correspondent comments on its effect in keeping
alive the old grinlve against Great Britain. It is
natural that it should do so, and, however little we
may deserve them, we must bear patiently with
reproaches for which there is too good au excuse.
rhe mischief done in wanton malice by the Shenan-
doah is enough to justify any degree of resentment,
and as there is no one else to be held responsible,
except Capt. Waddell, who cannot be got at, no
wonder that the brunt of it falls upon us. So far
as we are blamed for the original launching of the
Shenandoah in British waters, we can only reply,
as we have so often replied before, that we had no
means of preventing the construction of a hulk
which should afterwards be converted into a ship of
war beyond our own territory. On another point,
however, there seems to be a misapprehension which
it is desirable to remove. The special ground of com-
plaint against us, as reported by our correspondent,
is that we have deviated from the course adopted
by other Powers, and given Confederate cruisers
the benefit of 24 hours' shelter in British ports, " so
that" (to quote the words of an American officer),
" even if our vessels followed the Shenandoah into
any of your ports, in any part of the world, we
should not be allowed to take her." Thus stated,
the construction put on Lord Russell's Despatch
by the American public is erroneous in more than
one respect. It is not the fact that her Majesty's
Government stood alone in the application of the
twenty-four hours' rule,for precisely the same ground
was taken by the French Government. Nor is it the
fact that Captain Waddell would be able to claim
benefit under any circumstances whatsoever. No-
thing can be simpler than the principles on which
we have granted or refused shelter to these cruisers.
On the 31st of January, 1862, Lord Russell com-
municated to the Colonial-office certain directions
for the guidance of Colonial Governors. The first
part of these directions related exclusively to the
Bahamas, and prohibited the admission of any ves-
sel of war, Federal or Confederate, to any harbour
in those islands, " except by special leave of the
Lieutenant-Governor, or in case of stress of weather."
Any such vessels of war, or any vessels of war which.
might be already lying there, were to be required to
depart with all possible despatch, but no ship of war
belonging to one belligerent was to be permitted to
sail within twenty-four hours after the departure of
any ship belonging to the other belligerent. The
rule laid down for the United Kingdom and the
colonies differed from this in one particular. Ships
of war belonging to either belligerent were not
directly prohibited from entering or remaining in
our ports, but only from making them a place of re-
sort for purposes of war or warlike equipment. They
were, therefore, to be sheltered there so long as
might be absolutely necessary for provisioning or
repairing, but the same twenty-four hours rule was
to be applied. When the recognition of the Confede-
rate States as belligerents was cancelled on the 2d
of June last, all the ports in our Empire were closed
against vessels of war under a Confederate flag,
and all such vessels were cautioned to depart forth-
with, but the twenty-four hours' rule was to be
maintained in their favour "then and for the last
time." A reference to the Circular of the French
Minister of Marine, published in the Moniteur of
June 13, will show that precisely the same reserva-
tion was made by the Imperial Government :
" You will cause to be observed, for the last
time in their behalf, the rule laid down in my Cir-
cular of the sth of February, 1864, and by the
terms of which an interval of at least twenty-four
hours must be observed between the departure of
any vessel of war of one of the belligerents and the
subsequent departure of any vessel of war of the
other belligerent." The justice of this provision is
self-evident, but it has no bearing on the case of
the Shenandoah, which was not lying in any of our
ports when Lord Russell's letter was received. It
is true that in the next paragraph permission was
granted to Confederate captains to enter our ports
and disarm their vessels, at their own risk, within
one month after the receipt of that letter by the
Colonial authorities, but it was expressly added
that the twenty-four hours' rule would there be in-
applicable. The worst, therefore, that could hap-
pen is that Captain Waddell should have presented
himself at Vancouver's Island within a month after
the Governor had received Lord Russell's Despatch,
obtained leave to disarm the Shenandoah, and
thereby saved himself from the doom of a pirate.
It is highly improbable that he would have
bethought himself of doing so while he was in hot
pursuit of the whaling fleet. Even if he had, the
Shenandoah's career would be at an end, for she
must instantly part with her armament,. whereas if
he bad not, the day of grace would be over, and no
British port would be open to him. Whether by
his conduct he has not forfeited all claim to avail
• himself of any such
privilege is a further question,
, which may be left to the legal advisers of the