The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—There are few Englishmen of any feeling
who will not have a host of once vivid impressions
revived by the sight of Mr. Seward's despatch to
the American Minister in our Saturday's columns.
It is only seven months since we heard the news of
a crime which grows in magnitude and in horror as
we drift away from it down the swift stream of time..
The intervening period has not been uneventful or
unexciting. We too, like the Americans, have lost
the political chief of our Government, and quietly
accepted the next in authority. The United States
themselves have been pacified, reorganised, and re-
united, with a rapidity and ease that command our
admiration. Our own immense empire has never
failed to produce, somewhere or other, objects of
anxious or agreeable interest. At home we are
dividing our time between domestic economics and
organic reconstruction. Our hands are never idle,
but we can still feel the shock of the frightful tragedy
which only in the spring of this year threw into the
background every lesser or older misery, and might
atone for any number of errors. It so happened
that Abraham Lincoln, by the progress of either
amendment or truth, had righted himself in English
esteem, and then stood as well in our regards as any
foreign potentate could ever hope to stand. We
admired the man, and were beginning to like him,
seeing in him the able and kind-hearted administra-
tor of the greatest work of social peacemaking the
world had yet seen. So we felt his murder as we
should have done that of a leading British statesman
at the hands of a political fanatic. There was more,
indeed, in his case than there would ever be in this
country, unless we could suppose half the realm
making head against the other half for several years.
There was a grand ceremony of a national reconcilia-
tion to be performed, and, as Heaven would have it,
there lay bleeding before us the victim to consecrate
it. Other victims were intended, and the assassins
so far succeeded that one, the foremost Statesman
on the Federal side, and the man with whom we had
most to do, had to endure for months a living mar-
tyrdom. The strong will, the active intellect, and
the ready tongue lay trembling between life and
death when the most difficult stage of his great
task had only just begun. We could not but be
deeply impressed with a catastrophe that appealed
to the chief qualities of our race, and the national
sympathy burst out at a thousand openings,
wherever many or few had been wont to come to-
gether and make a common utterance. It was the
same elsewhere. So mail after mail took across the
Atlantic such piles of condolence as had probably
never before been evoked by any national bereave-
ment. Answer could hardly be expected, for the
man to answer was himself a dying man, for the
time as helpless as his chief. So we wele all con-
tent to wait ; and now, after seven months, we
find that we can revert to that crisis with undimin-
ished horror at the deed, and larger and more cer-
tain knowledge of its place in the work of American
reconstruction. The American Secretary of State
has done all that could be done under the circum-
stances. Any attempt to produce a form of words
specially appropriate to every address and every
community would have been only a ridiculous ef-
fort of literary clerkship. Even in this country
people are little aware of the pressure of work in the
principal Departments on an extraordinary crisis
or in a busy season. At Washington there was a
war to be brought to an end, a great Empire to be
rebuilt, and a good many questions with other
countries to be settled, if possible, to the satis-
faction alike of the American and of the foreigner.
Mr. Seward, who has recovered slowly from his
terrible succession of injuries, has only just been
able to speak for himself and his Government.
The British public will not have failed to notice
the modesty with which the Secretary alludes to the
cause of this delay. His Department was indeed
crippled when he lay, as many thought, on his
death-bed, with wound upon wound; for that was
" the peculiar calamity" which then impaired the
efficiency of the American Foreign-office. That a
Government simply constructed for the transaction
of •necessary affairs in the ordinary course of public
business should have been able to do its share in the
work of the war was itself a wonder to this country.
But when a new calamity involved new " obliga-
tiJns"—the calamity a partial massacre of the Go-
vernment, and the " obligations" the duty of
answering condolences—the worst foe of Republi-
can institutions could not but do justice to the
Government which went on at all under such cir-
cumstances. We all saw, and duly appreciated,
that there was not the least symptom of failure or
collapse. Everything went on as• usual, as far as
met the eye. Our own difficulties, indeed, are so
different in kind that it is not- easy to make a just
andintelligible comparison ; hut after witnessing
the confusion apt to take place in other States upon
the sudden withdrawing or the disabling of those at
the head of critical affairs, we seemed to recognise a
character like our own in a people whose chief rulers
fell or were prostrated in a day, at a time when they
were more than ever wanted, but which went on
just as usual. The simple but very hearty acknow-
ledgments of the American Secretary seem to give
US an opening for a word or two on the prevalent
feelings of this country towards the United States.
It would be quite idle to deny that there are points
upon which this country is jealous, or sore, or with-
out the perfect sympathy that obtains between
two similar social systems. With long arrears of
quarrels upon one trifle or another, and a new one
every year, and with a very strong opinion on
this side that our rights were often sacrificed to
political exigencies in the United States, we cer-
tainly have found it difficult to appreciate the Ame-
rians as we really wish to do. We can afford to
make this confession when we state what we be-
lieve to be the truth as to the great extent of our
good wishes for America. We have not the least
objection to the United States increasing to any
extent, and annexing any amount of territory or
number of States, so long as it is all done honestly,
above board, and by fair appeals to the sympathy
and good sense of the people. If the population
either of our own provinces or of Mexico freely and
spontaneously declared they thought this their best
chance of peace and prosperity, the British people
would only feel the most passing regret at the loss
of a name, and the proportionate aggrandisement
of the United States. Of course the case is altered
if the object is to be obtained by fraud, by force, or
by intimidation. In that case, not only is there
actual wrong done upon our own loyal subjects,
and others entitled to our sympathy, but there is
also established a prescription, a policy, and a
temper ruinous to the future peace and even pro-
gress of the world. History contains some very
colossal instances of continual annexation by fraud
and by violence ; in fact, by policies constructed
with a speciaView to perpetual aggrandisement.
But the event yet condemns them ; the moral
sense is opposed to them ; and modern politics are
mainly directed to prevent the recurrence of the
evil. It is from no special jealousy of the United
States that we dread their indefinite enlargement
by the means too of cen employed, and vainly de-
nounced by American moralists. It is our English
habit, our second nature, our historical teaching,
our European law. Even in Europe we are glad to
see Italians or Germans achieve more comprehen-
sive unions than circumstances have hitherto
allowed. Nor should we object to any amount of
aggregation in America by equally allowable means.
Only, as a great State, we cannot bear to be ousted,
outwitted, and coerced, and to see our own people
suffer for their loyalty.
POST.—From the file of newspapers brought by
the last American mail we learn the reception given
at New York to the news of the surrender of the
Shenandoah. When that cruiser dropped her anchor
in the Mersey, and her commander and crew sub-
mitted themselves to the English Government, the
opinions expressed by the public press in respect to
the future action of the authorities were uncertain
and various. It was generally conceded that the
Government were not bound by the extradition
treaty to deliver up Captain Waddell or any of his
crew ; but it was also admitted that the only ground
on which we could justify our refusal to do so would
be our readiness and ability to try him for an offence
cognisable before,English tribunals. It was there-
fore almost assumed that the captain of the Shenan-
doah would have beea arraigned for piracy, and
called upon to prove to the satisfaction of a jury
that all acts of hostility against American commerce
subsequent to the overthrow of the Confederate
Government were committed by him in ignorance
of that fact. When the last mail left New York the
surrender of the Shenandoah, but not the ultimate
decision of the English Government, was known,
and the newspapers of that city consequently teem
with speculations on the probable conduct of the re-
spective Governments of Great Britain and the
United States. The World and the Herald deelare
themselves convinced that England will not hesitate
to admit the justice of a demand for Captain Wad-

dell's extradition, whilst the New York Times asserts
that the responsibility of dealing with that officer
devolves alone oh the British Government, and that
America has a right to demand that a prosecution
will be instituted against him in an English court of
law. A few days later the American journalists
will have learned that not only was Captain Wad-
dell not handed over to the American Ambassador,
but that he and the companions of his voyage were
set at liberty, and the vessel alone, together with the
spoils of her many depredations, placed at the dis-
posal of the American Government. How this in-
telligence has been received we cannot say. It is
probable that a very little reflection served to con-
vince our American contemporaries that any claims
made under the extradition treaty would have been
untenable, whilst the liberation of Captain Waddell
would find a ready explanation in the refusal of the
American Minister to call upon the English Govern-
ment to institute criminal proceedings against that
gentleman. We are as yet ignorant of what passed
betwgen Mr. Adams and the Earl of Clarendon in
connection with the captain and crew of the Shenan-
doah ; but it is probable that the former contented
himself with simply demanding possession of the
vessel and her contents. When commenting on the
arrival of the Shenandoah in the.port of Liverpool
we directed particular attention to those principles
of law which govern the interpretation of the extra-
dition treaty, and pointed out the grounds on which
we should have been compelled to refuse to surren-
der Captain Waddell to the American authorities in
case a requisition had been made by Mr. Adams.
There can be no doubt that the non-presentation
of such a demand was attributable to the fact that,
under circumstances in many respects similar, the
Court of Queen's Bench decided eighteen months ago
that the extradition treaty did not apply. There was
no reason to suppose that the judgment then pro-
nounced would be overruled, and the American
Minister adopted a dignified course in not making a
demand which he knew would be rejected. When,
however, some American journals venture to assert
that our refusal to surrender Captain Waddell
would constitute a transparent violation of the
treaty, and that such a course on our part would
justly provoke them into despatching from their
ports Fenian Shenandoahs and Fenian Alabamas to
prey upon British commerce, we would simply re-
mind them that treaties and laws are invariably
constructed without any regard to the consequences
of such construction, and that the decision on that
particular clause of the treaty under which, if at all,
Captain Waddell's extradition would have been de-
manded, was given in a case in which popular sym-
pathy was in no way enlisted. The offence of
piracy is mentioned in the treaty as one of those
crimes for the commission of which the extradition
of individuals may be demanded ; but piracy is of
two kinds, namely, by the law of nations, and by
the municipal law of particular countries. It was
held by the Court of Queen's Bench that it was only
in cases of piracy of the latter kind that the treaty
applied, because, as it provides that certaincrimmals
shall " be delivered up to justice," that object could
not be sought in those instances where the offence
committed is cognisable by the tribunals of the
country in which the offender is found. If Captain
Waddell is a pirate, he is so jure gentium, and con-
sequently responsible for his acts in this country
in like manner as he would be in America. All
therefore that the American people could fairly
claim at our hands was that he should be called
upon by us to answer for his supposed offences.
Why he was not put upon his trial we cannot
positivelypy, but we are inclined to imagine that
the explanation which he offered to the English
Government was deemed satisfactory both by them
and by the American Minister, and that it was
deemed inexpedient to institute what would pro-
bably have proved a mere vexatious prosecution. It
must be admitted that the impression which existed
not only in the United States but in this country,
that the Shenandoah had pursued her depredations
far into the autumn, was erroneous. Captain Wad-
dell asserts that his last capture was made in June,
some six weeks after the fall of the Confederacy,
and that, on his receipt from the English ship Bar-
racouta of what he considered reliable information
on that point, he immediately dismantled his ship
and steered for England. Now, if those statements
were true, and we have had their accuracy im-
peached, it is almost certain that an impartial jury
would have found that, considering the remoteness
of the seas on which he cruised, he had not received
in June such information from the whalers whom
he captured as rendered it incumbent on him to
desist from hostilities. It is also to be borne in
mind that the piracy which the captain of the
Shenandoah is alleged to have committed must have
been motiveless, because his first act on his arrival
in Liverpool was to deliver up, together with his
ship, the spoils of his different conquests. It is not
suggested that Captain Waddell or any of his crew
profited to the amount of a single dollar by their
cruise against the American whalers. Under these
circumstances, therefore, it will probably be ad-
mitted in America, as it has certainly been felt
here, that the later hostilities committed by the
commander of the Shenandoah against the Ameri-
can flag were so committed in ignorance of the fall
of the Government by whose authority he acted,
and that neither morally nor legally could he be
deemed responsible for the consequences of those
acts.

American Financial and Commercial.

- -110.

)vhW Yogi, Nov..ls.—Money easier. Gold 1471. Ex-
change on Dna;lon, 160 ; ditto Paris, 3.551. Stocks
slightly firmer. New York Centrals, 96* ; Illinois, 1341 ;
Erie, 92i ; Five-Twenty Bonds, 1011-.. Cotton tending
downwards : Middling Upland, 50. Flour steady. Wheat
advancing. Corn good inquiry. Provisions firmer.
Coffee dull. Sugar dull. Molasses good demand. Petro-
leum very firm ; crude, 391 ; refined, 62.
NEW YORK, Nov. 18.—Money easier. Gold, 147. Ex-
change on London, 1591 ; on Paris, 3.55. Stocks slightly
firmer. New York Central, 971 ; Illinois, 134 ; Erie, 92.
Five-Twenties, 102}. Cotton steady—middling upland,
52c. Flour quiet. Wheat tending downwards. Corn dull.
Provisions heavy. Coffee quiet. Sugar steady. Molasses
quiet.. Petroleum steady—crude, 391 c. ; refined, 621 c.
NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 10.—Cotton very dull—middling
upland, 50c. to 52c.

New York Petroleum Stock Quotations, Nov. 14:—
Bid. Asked.
M'Kinley
Mt. Vernon 0 75
Montana
Northern Light 20 325
Oceanic a4s 050
Oil Creek
Pit Hole Creek 13 15 13 20
Rynd Farm
Shade River 380 4 0
Southard
Tack, of N. Y 0 25 026
Union — 40 0
United Pet — 0 65
United States 26 70 26 70
Vesta — 2 0
Webster Pet
Knickerbocker 012 020
Liberty
Lily Run Pet. 110 150
M'Clintockvie 1 0
N.Y.& Newark 037 040
Noble Well 3 0
Ohio
Palmer Oil 250 275
Pit Hole Con. 295 3 0
People's Pet
President
Sherman and
Barnesdale —
Von. &P. Hole
W. Vir. o.Coal 0 15
Walker Creek 3 0
Watson O2O 020

Bid. Asked.
Bennehoff R l6 25 16 45
Buchanan Fm 066 067
Bradley Oil llO 112
Brevoort 14 50
Central 25 50 26 0
Cherry Run O2l 023
Empire City 0 50
Everett • 085 125
Excelsior
Fee Simple
First National 090 095
Germania
Hamilton and
M'Clintock 530
Highgate
Manhattan 026 028
Adamantine
Allegheny Oil 050
Allen Wright 090
Bergen C. &O. 024 030
Beech Tree — 1 0
Bunker-hill
California Pet 0 0
Cherry Run and
Chenango 025 •0 60
Clinton
Commonwealth 2 0
Consol, N.Y OBO
Enniskillen 3 0
Forest Pet 0 5 050
G. W. Cons'd 065 125
Inexhaustible 018 020
Ivanhoe 2lO 225
Ky. Nat. P. Co ll5 135

(From E. F. Satterthwaite q- Co.'s Weekly Circular, Nov. 29th.)
The Java brought us advices from New York to the
14th inst., reporting lower prices for nearly every descrip-
tion of securities. Government Stocks were about $1
lower, the demand for money bringing some considerable
amounts to market. The entire list of Railroad Stocks
also exhibited a decline of from $1 to $5. In Milwaukee
and Prairie du Chien the speculation had broken through,
and from 230 the Shares had fallen to 102. Railroad
Mortgages and State Stocks participated in the general
depression. Gold remained steady at about 47 premium,
the large amount required for customs duties preventing
any decline.

The following is an extract from a letter, dated Chicago,
November 7th, 1865 ; it is from a gentleman intimatey
acquainted with the freighting business, and will, we think,
be read with much interest, as showing the enormous
quantities of produce requiring to be moved. it affords
additional evidence, if any were needed, of the inadequacy
of existing roads to cope with the business offering ;
either additional tracks must be laid down, additional se-
parate roads must be built, or produce and merchandise
must be left behind

Surely with such facts as are now patent, there is re-
quired not only the full development of the Atlantic and
Great Western as it at present exists, but also another
fresh outlet to the seaboard for the traffic brought by this
and other railways from the teeming West.
It appears to us that for those having an unemployed
capital, from which a steady income must be derived, no
more desirable investment offers than the Bonds of Ameri-
can Railroads, which run through districts, affording a
present large and increasing traffic. The rate of interest
would be much higher than, and the security quite equal
to, that obtained from investments in our own British or
the Indian line of Railroad, especially when the interest
is payable in London at a fixed rate of exchange.
"The New York Central Railroad is completely blocked
at Albany, the Eastern terminus, owing to the inability of
the connecting roads for Boston, and other points in New
England to receive and carry off the property as fast as
the Central delivers it, and now every store-house, and
spare foot of open ground in the city is occupied with de-
layed property, and-to-such an extent that the Central