The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-20 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

The Adjutant. General, Sir Jas. Y. Scarlett, has
issued a circular memorandum which announces
tha
t thhese Duke
ecretaroyfoCfasm:r e,
War, with
tteidfgor
has
been pleased
to extend until further notice permission for the
retirement of halt pay officers by ihe„sAle of their
commissions, and which nealis'finill pry such as
are able to serve, under the restrictions specified in
the circular memorandum dated Feb. 15, 1861.

_____ ..... , _
The whole of the troops stationed at Landguard
Fort, Harwich,
overwich,areto h
to
tbee Suffolkwit withdrawn, and the Fort
will be handed
Artillery Militia
until the 26th of April.
Brigade field-days are to take place in connection
with Colchester Camp every Wednesday. An an-
nouncement has been made that 455 Volunteers are
7reBqthui,rBe3ddf,oarodthBe4tlhstitim
battalion, sth Fusiliers, 40th,
Regiments,
But
very few men
have b
i 0 Colchester,
the battalions ne
lioonbstaaittd at
that station being much reduced.
A number of men are waiting orders at Colchester
to join the invalid depot at Chatham, previously to
being discharged from the service.
the various
The manufacturing branches of Woolwich Arsenal
are engaged in preparing specimens of
articles used in war produced in the departments,
donepaosditeemdanatd mthaedeNbaytiotnhael SecretaryEhxibit of State, to be
Exhibition.
The gun
factories will expose a sample of each species of
y will exhibit
Armstrong ordnance now in use; as well as an
assortment of the metals and implements employed
in its manufacture. The laborator
round and spherical shot,
&c., and a new species of
percussion caps recently brought forward ; and the
carriage department will send in a selection of the
newesteci ui
pni patternsents appe ofrt a i
ni
n g to carriages,th e platforms,
Armstrong
garrison
guns, and field batteries, &C.
The sailing transport Pathfinder, laden with Ar-
mstrong shot, shell, &c., yesterday sailed from Wool-
wich Pier for Bermuda.

THE EAST INDIA, CHINA, AND A US-
TRALIAN MAILS.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's screw
steamer Pera, Capt. T. Jamieson, arrived at South-
ampton yesterday, at 7.30 a.m., with the heavy
portion of the above-named mails, in charge of Mr.
B. Perkins, of the GenEral Post-office. She brought
93 passengers £57,700 in specie, 95 packages of
goods for the Exhibition, 912 bales of silk, 83 cases
of indigo, 800 sacks of grain, 43 boxes of oranges,
and 240 packages of general merchandise.

The Pera left Alexandria on the 6th inst., Malta
on the 10th, and Gibraltar on the 14th. From Alex-
andria to Malta she had north-westerly winds and
fine weather ; thence to Gibraltar westerly winds
and rain ; calms and fine clear weather as far as
Cape Finisterre, and the remainder of the passage
light easterly winds, fine weather andsmooth water.
On the 16th, at 5 30 a.m., the Pera spoke the Indus,
with the outward Bombay mails, steering to the
southward; on the 17th, the steamship Aurora,
steering south; and on the 18th, at 12 30 p.m., the
Tagus with the outward Peninsular mails, a little
to the northward of Ushant.

Her Majesty's ships Firebrand, Pelican, Doris,
and Osborne were at Alexandria ; the Marlborough
at Malta ; and the Scylla, Procris, anp Redpole at.
London, Captain Chads, left Gibraltar on the after-
noon of the 11th inst., under steam, for Western
Islands. The Intrepid left for the eastward at 11 30
a.m. on the 18th. The Amphion also sailed for the
east at 9 a.m. on the 10th.

The French steam sloop Coligny was at Gibraltar
on the 14th. The Titan left for the east on the
morning of the 10th.
The Swedish corvette Lagerbjelke, Capt. K. L.
N. Dag, 16 days from Malta, arrived at Gibraltar on
the 9th, and saluted the garrison with 21 guns on
her arrival, which was returned from the saluting
battery.
The American Federal corvette Tuscarora, Cora.
Craven ; steam sloop Kearsarge, Com. C. Pickering;
and sailing ship Ino were lying in the roadstead of
Algeciras. The Confederate steamer Sumter, Capt.
Semmes, remained at Gibraltar. The Kearsarge ar-
rived at Gibraltar from America, Madeira, and
Cadiz on the afternoon of the Bth, and went across
to Algeciras the same afternoon. The Ino had taken
the two American gentlemen seized at Tangiers to
Cadiz, si here they were transferred to the A merican
merchant ship Harvest Home, which sailed almost
immediately afterwards for Boston, and the Ino re-
turned to Algeciras. It was said that the prisoners
were kept in irons. Referring to the brief conver-
sation which took place in the House of Commons
on the 3d inst., on this question, the Gibraltar
Chronicle of the 11th says :
" With respect to the allegation that no pressure
had been put upon the Moorish Government to
affect the arrest, and that by the law of Morocco
the representative of a Christian Power has juris-
diction over the subjects of his own Government,
the true state of the facts appears to be thi4 :—By
the law of Morocco the Sultan has absolute and
delegating it
of those
despotic power in his dominions ; by special
con-
ventions he has waived the exercise of this power
to overth
ethe subjects
osor Consular
fCohnrsiusltaianStates, r
representatives
States. These conventions, however, code the juris-
diction over Christians residing in Morocco for of-
fences committed in the country, and have never
been understood either by Morocco or Christian
States to confer upon the latter the right to pursue
and capture upon Moorish territory political offen-
ders. Such offenders have heretofore found as secure
an asylum in Morocco as in any independent State
of Europe. They have usually been men of liberal
opinions flying from the persecution of an absolute
Government ; and it will be singular if this refuge
should now be destroyed by the agent of a Govern-
tment boasting itself the freest in the world. Who-
ever will turn to the last British Treaty with Mo-
rocco, that of 1857, will find that while Article 11
gives the right to British Consuls to call for the as-
sistance of Moorish soldiers to arrest or transport
British subjects, Article 15 specifies the only case
in which such subjects are to be conveyed out of the
country and placed on board ship—namoly, when
sailors attempt to desert their vessel--a very neces
sary provision to prevent British shipping being
disabled in Moorish ports for want of hands. Eng-
land does not even sAipulate for the surrender of
deserters, but there, is a reciprocal engagement that
deserters frote,.‘ the service of one State shall not be
received
%Tito that of the other. We may fairly as-
,
that the conventions made with Morocco by
other Christian States are substantially the same as
equal " •
that of England, and that privileges and ad-
vantages are possessed by all. This being so, it is
evident that no pressure would be qa
re ired to be

put on the Moorish authorities to effect the arrest
of any foreign Christian, seeing that, under the
article we have quoted, it does not appear that those
authorities ht.ve the right to enter upon the ques-
tion of the Consul's competency to arrest, before
granting him the assistance of the armed force.
The course actually pursued by the Moorish Mi-
nister therefore appears to have been the right one.
The assistance of Moorish soldiers was given upon
the Consul's requisition, but when, upon investiga-
tion, it was found that he had exceeded his juris-
diction, the Minister demanded the release of the
prisoners, and only permitted their embarkation on
board an American ship of war after the Consul
had threatened to strike his flag and leave the
country in case of refusal. Then the Moorish
Minister yielded, fearing the responsibility of in-
volving the Sultan in another war. The whole affair
is but another version of the old story—the might
of the strong overriding the right of the weak.
Morocco is an independent State, becoming every
year, from the importance of its productions, more
closely connected with the European system. Chris-
tian powers by their treaties recognise it as a Sove-
reign State, and it therefore possesses all the rights
of one. The right involved in the present question
is very clearly defined by the writers on interna-
tional law ; by none more clearly than the American
authority, Wheaton, who says :
" No Sovereign State is bound, unless by special
compact, to deliver up persons, whether its own
subjects or foreigners, charged with, or convicted of
crimes in another country, upon the demand of a
foreign State, or its officers of justice.'
" The Sultan has chosen by compact to cede cer-
tain of his sovereign rights, in order that Christians
residing in his dominions may enjoy the milder laws
of their own country and not be subject to the
rough and summary processes of Mahommedan
justice. This surely should obtain for him greater
respect for the sovereign rights he retains. On this
ground we believe that the United States' Govern-
ment will disapprove the act of their Consul. It is
clear, besides, that this is a question which concerns
not only the United States and Morocco, but all the
Christian States who have treaties with the latter.
Under the favoured nation clause, all enjoy the
same rights, immunities, and privileges. The United
States cannot, therefore, push her jurisdiction in
Morocco beyond the limits of the others. But since
the seizure of political offenders in the territory of
the Sultan, against his will, would be a manifest
violation of his sovereign rights, it is not to be sup-
posed that the statesmen who guide European
Governments will commit the flagrant political
immorality of extorting the Sultan's consent to
such seizures, merely because he is weak and unable
to resist. Will the United States, then, claim a
jurisdiction which other Governments are prevented
by their sense of justice from asserting? We have
no right to think so, and it seems more probable
that the act of the United States' agent at Tangier
will not be ratified by his Government.
Advices from Teneriffe to the 26th of February,
received at Gibraltar, state that a French squadron,
composed of two ships of the line and four frigates,
having on board 2,000 infantry and 400 cavalry,
had put into that port and left for Vera Cruz.
The Peninsular and Oriental steamship Ceylon,
Captain R. W. Evans, with the outward Calcutta
and China mails from Southampton, arrived at Gib-
raltar on the 14th, and went on to Malta and Alex-
andria.

The screw steamer Pactolus, which was disabled
some time ago in the collision with the French
screw ship of the line Fontenoy, in the Straits of
Gibraltar, left Gibraltar for Liverpool on the after
noon of the 13th, in tow of the screw steamer Vene-
tian, which was to cast her off when at a consider-
able distance beyond Cape Spartel, and the Pactolus
to continue her voyage under canvas.
The brig Eliza Bowen, which parted cables and
ran ashore near the watering jetty, during the gale
of the 2d inst., was got off on the afternoon of
the 13th.