The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The reappearance of the Shenandoah in
British waters at the present juncture is an unto-
ward and unwelcome event. When we last heard
of this notorious cruiser she was engaged in a pitiles'i
raid upon American whalers in the North Pacific,
and several war steamers of the United States were
stated to be in pursuit of her. It was also reported,
though somewhat vaguely, that our own naval
commander on that station had offered any assist-
ance in his power, and little doubt was entertained
of her speedy capture. The next thing that we
learn is that she has entered the Mersey under the
Confederate flag, that she is alongside and in charge
of Her Majesty's ship Donegal, and that Captain
Waddell has forwarded a letter to Lord Russell.
Whatever be the contents of that letter, this act is
obviously equivalent to a surrender of the vessel to
the Government of Great Britain, as the Stonewall
was surrendered to the Spanish authorities at Ha-
vannah. The time which has elapsed, however,
since the termination of the war, and the conduct
of Captain Waddell during this interval, constitute
very material points of difference between the two
cases, and render it necessary to consider that of the
Shenandoah exclusively on its own merits. It is
fortunate that in this instance nothing practically
turns on the original equipment of the ship thus
placed in our hands. In a certain sense it is doubt-
less true that the Shenandoah was built and manned
in fraud of our neutrality, for those who gave the
order for her construction and engaged her crew
must have been well aware of her real destination.
But it is also true, as Lord Russell pointed out in
one of his letters to Mr. Adams, that when she
cleared for China as a merchant ship, under the
name of the Sea King, not a tittle of evidence was
offered on behalf of the United States or any other
party to justify her detention. Arms were after-
wards sent out in a French vessel to a rendezvous
at sea, and the Sea King assumed the character
of a Confederate man-of-war; .but it is far from
certain that, even if all that is known now had
been known then, a conviction could have been ob-
tained against her under our own or the American
Foreign Enlistment Act. At all events, she has since
been received as a public ship of the Confederate
States in one, at least, of our colonies, and although
this circumstance would not avil to screen any
individuals who may have conspired to violate our
law in respect of her, it would be too late to discuss
the validity of her claim to shelter during the war.
Had the Shenandoah arrived at Liverpool at the
beginning of this year, it must be assumed that she
would have been entitled to the benefit of the regu-
lations then in force as to the reception of bellige-
rent vessels. According to these, she would have
been required to depart within twenty-four hours,
unless either stress of weather or the want of imme-
diate supplies should have made a longer stay abso-
lutely needful, but no Federal ship of war would
have been allowed to start in pursuit of her within
twenty-four hours. It is, of course, self-evident
that she now presents herself under wholly different
conditions. Not only has she lost the character of
a lawful cruiser by the collapse of the Power by
which she was commissioned, but she has forfeited
the temporary privileges reserved to vessels in the
Confederate service by Lord Russell's notice of the
2d of June. At any time within a month after the
receipt of that despatch in any colonial port, it would
have been competent for Captain Waddell to in-
voke the benefit of it, " divesting his vessel of her
warlike character, and, after disarming her, remain-
ing without a Confederate flag within British
waters "—subject, however, to all legal risks, one of
which would have been a claim of ownership on the
part of the United States' Government. As it is,
the month of grace has long since expired, and
the Shenandoah stands in the same position as if it
had never been granted. What, then, is this posi-
tion, and what consequences does the fact of their
having carried on war for months after the fall of
the Confederacy entail upon Captain Waddell and
his associates ? These are two very different ques-
tions, and questions of very unequal difficulty. It is
much to be regretted that either of them has been
raised in this country instead of in America, and that
no Federal man-of-war succeeded in capturing the
Shenandoah before she cast herself as it were upon
ourmercy. Having been raised, however, both issues
must be honestly faced, and wo may be sure that,
whatever it may involve, strict justice will be done
by the Government and tribunals ofE ngland. With
regard to the Shenandoah herself, we appreheudthat
little hesitation can be felt. On every principle of
law she belongs to that Government which has suc-
ceeded to all the rights and all the property of the
de facto Confederate Government. This doctrine is
laid down very clearly by Vice-Chancellor Page
Wood in the decision which has been so much criti-
cised of late in America ; but in truth it is scarcely
more than a rule of common sense. Lord Russell
did not affect to override it by the provision in his
despatch for the disarming of Confederate vessels in
our ports, but, on the contrary, facilitated the ap-
plication of it through a resort to the proper civil
tribunals. The Captain-General of Cuba doubtless
acted on the same view when he delivered over the
Stonewall to the agents of the United States ; nor,
indeed, is it easy to imagine on whose behalf any
counter claim could be preferred: What may be the
technical formalities to be observed in the transfer
is a matter of very little importance. Whether we
ought to wait for a demand, or to make over the
ship unasked, we hold it in trust for the United
States to all intents and purposes. It is only when
we come to the personal liability of Capt. Waddell
and the crew that we are met by perplexing circum-
stances. It is now more than half a year since the
American war virtually terminated, and the ravages
of the Shenandoah have been infinitely more de-
structive during this period than before. The state-
ment of losses contained in Mr. Adams's letter of
April 7 is as nothing compared with those that have
since reached us from Behring's Straits and adjoining
coasts. Nearly 40 whalers are said to havebeen among
her victims in those seas, and the price of sperm oil
has already been raisedjvery largely by her depreda-
dations. Now, it appears that Capt. Waddell pro-
fesses to have had no authentic information about
the close of the war until he fell in with her Majesty's
ship Barracouta on the 30th of August, when he
immediately consigned his guns to the hold and
altered his course for Liverpool. We have no wish
to prejudge a case which must become the subject
of a legal inquiry, but it is impossible to let such a
statement pass unchallenged. It is expressly nega-
tived by our accounts from California, derived from
the testimony of persons belonging to the ships
which he had destroyed. We have their positive as-
surance that Captain Waddell was told of all that
had happened by some of his prisoners, but refused
to credit it, because it was based on orthern au-
thority. How could it otherwise have been brought
to his knowledge, or how he could expect to receive
an intimation of it from an office which, if it were
true, no longer existed, it is for him to explain, for
by refusing to accept such notice he certainly took
on himself all the responsibility of his- subsequent
acts. Why did ho not at least run into the nearest
neutral harbour to verify a report which, unless
false, so gravely compromised his further proceed-
ings ? It is possible that a good answer may bo
give to these questions, but we must repeat that the
onus probandi lies entirely on Capt. Waddell's side.
All the world knew and believed the news which he
rejected, and which was not so improbable in itself
as by any means to justify his obstinate scepticism.
There is an old saying about none being so blind as
those who won't see, and the facts here suggest an
almost irresistible suspicion that Captain Waddell
was determined not to be arrested in his destroying
career till he had done his old enemies the utmost
possible mischief. Nor would it tend to remove
this impression if it should prove to be correct that
on the pilot coming on board he asked innocently
whether the war was over or not. It would have
been a great relief to ourselves, though little to the
advantage of the United States, had the Shenandoah
been simply excluded from the Mersey and left to
rove the seas till she should fall into the hands of
her pursuers. As it is, there seems hardly any
legitimate alternative but one. Captain Waddell
and his 130 men cannot be handed over as prisoners
of war upon any hypothesis consistent with that of
the war being at an end. Nor under any circum-
stances can they be given over to the United States.

They might possibly be prosecuted under the Foreign
Enlistment Act, but experience has shown the ex-
treme difficulty of establishing offences of that
nature. The crime of which they really stand ac-
cused—supposing them to have wilfully ignored the
termination of hostilities—is that of piracy, and on
this charge it is possible that they may be appre-
hended and tried before an English Court of Justice.
DAILY NEWS.—Whether from good fortune or
good sense, or perhaps we may fairly say from a
favourable combination of both, it happens that
Lord Stanley's name becomes associated with the
promotion of most objects of use and interest to the
public. Although the opposite of an imaginative
man, and therefore wanting in one of the most
needful elements of a broad and generous sympathy
with those who fill a different place in life from him-
self, the accidents of his position give him the know-
ledge and the interest which enable him to under-
stand the wants and join in the wishes of very
diversified classes of the community. It is not at all
wonderful, then, to find the heir of Knowsley, the
late Minister of India, the member of half a dozen
royal commissions, and the near neighbour of
Liverpool, presiding at the inauguration of an
athletic institution in that town. Lord Stanley
knows very well what hard metal work is, and no-
body is better entitled than he to say what is the
character of the bodily exertion which is its
needful counterpoise. And he knows very well,
by the observation of the facts which every day
are forced upon his attention, how imperative
it is that such a counterpoise' should be placed
within the easy reach of the sedentary dwellers in
great towns. As he sees the marvellous growth
of Liverpool he cannot help recognising how the
want of fresh air, the want of country exercise,
and the more and more engrossing character of
city pursuits, demand the refreshment which is
only in such circumstances to be obtained by the
cultivation of some form of:gymnastics. So recog-
nising the necessity of the times, he usefully gives
the benefit of his name and support to an institution
which undertakes to supply the want, and which,
having secured itself the advantage of an excellent
hall in Liverpool, is likely, we are glad to learn, to
form the example and nucleus of imitation and
association in other towns similarly situated. That
in performing this duty Lord Stanley could say
nothing very new or very striking is no detraction
of his powers. All that can be said on such themes
is known, theoretically, to everybody. Doctors do
not need to tell us that without exercise we must
fall into ill health and die ; we are perfectly ready
to acknowledge it as an established truth. We are
all fully aware that the tendency of the mentalwork
this age delights in is to excite the nerves and dete-
riorate the muscles ; we are perfectly conscious that
by wearing out the mind at the same time that we
neglect the body we are burning the candle at both
ends, and that a speedy extinction of the light is
the inevitable result to be expected. Nevertheless
we go on doing it just the same. It is easier
and pleasanter for us to live close to our places of
business than to reside at a distance, or if we do go
to a distance it is easier and pleasanter to take the
rail or the omnibus than to get up in the dark
mornings in time to walk, and then to return
on foot at night through the muddy streets,
dismal with the gaslights reflected from the
puddles. Everybody has not a taste for volunteer-
ing, and the devotees of cricket or aquatic exer-
cises are at any rate during the half year debarred
from these pursuits, while even during the season the
business hours and growing dimensions of our great
cities make it daily more difficult to obtain oppor-
tunity for indulging in them. What, then, is wanted
is something accessible, something independent of
weather and season, something which shall meet
every variety of taste and strength of body, and
something which shall give real bodily work, and
not merely the excitement of a billiard room. These
requirements, Lord Stanley very justly observed,
are only to be provided by halls for athletic exer-
cises. The clerk or the junior partner may turn
into them at any hour he finds convenient. He will
have the comfort of a dry, well lighted, and cheer-
ful place of exercise. He can fence, or spar, or
swing from ropes, or leap, or choose any other form
of muscular exertion to which his fancy may incline
him ; he has the encouragement of emulation and
the guidance of practised skill, and in an hour he
will do more to open his pores and expand his chest
and harden his muscles, and unite hand, eye, and
head in regulated precision, than he could by_ any
amount of " constitutionals" through the depress-
ing lanes of the suburbs of a great town. This is a
matter of experience as well as of obvious common
sense. In fact, a clergyman, who spoke after
Lord Stanley, supplied an apt illustration in his
own person. He had been breaking down with
over mental work and anxiety, and he was ordered
by his doctor to rest. But he had no opportunity
or means for resting, so he determined, instead of
resting the mind, to work the body in daily gym-
nastics. This performed the cure. Now, as a
clergyman's work does require him to be to some
extent in the open air, to walk about in his parish,
and to exert his voice in the pulpit, it is obvious that
this case illustrates the insufficiency of mere town
exercise in so far as the streets will supply it, at the
same time thatit illustrates the efficacy of gymnastic
exercises, even though taken within the precincts of
town air. It is, of course, to be fully admitted
that such exercises may be abused. There is no-
thing that the wisest can recommend that may not
be pushed to excess. But this is a risk that is not
to deter us from using it for its fair purposes. Lord
Stanley very justly pointed out the distinction when
he said that the object of such institutions is " not
to make athletes, not to make champions of Eng-
land out of men who have not to live by their
muscles ; but to develope strong, sound, and
healthy constitutions." No doubt we shall, as
these establishments spread and multiply, hear of
accidents occurring in
_them, and even of men
breaking down under the training. It is so in
every pursuit into which emulation enters. But
the fact that some men ruin their health by over
training for a boat-race is not to prevent us from
encouraging a manly and healthful recreation, any
more than the loss of a life in a foolhardy Alpine
excursion is to bid us reprobate every walking tour
in Switzerland. Our business is to keep fully
in view the chief aim of such pursuits, in order that
the exaggeration may be discouraged, which alone
can lead to harm. In this the public may lend some
aid. It must temper due encouragement with oppo-
sition to all feats which are attractive rather from
their peril than from their grace or utility. It must
refrain from injudicious applause of exploits which
need too long devotion to physical toil for their ac-
complishment. In truth, if it takes care to subscribe
when necessary to set such establishments fairly
agoing, the public will do most wisely if it leaves
their maintenance to the enthusiasm of their fre-
quenters. These will be quite numerous and eager
enough to do without artificial stimulus. The pro-
gress of the German Turnverein is being equalled
by the later but not less striking progress of gym-
nastic institutions in this country, and a national
association which is to unite and extend their ener-
gies is already been set on foot. It is a happy proof
that Nature vindicates her own laws, and that the
evils civilisation introduces will in a healthy nation
find easily a natural remedy. Not merely mental
vigour but moral soundness may be expected to be
enhanced by the adoption of a system which is first
of all suggested to us by the cravings of the body
for physical exercise. All we have to do is to wish
well to thislatest development of muscular religion,
and, while wishing well, to abstain from being
, seduced by novelty to urge a good thing to the
point of evil.

Foreign Mail Packet List.

MAILS DUE.

Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton Nov. 18.
Ditto, via Marseilles Nov. 12.
Brazil and Cape Verde, by British paotet Dee. 4.1

Ditto, by French packet
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena Nov. 21.
China, Penang. and Singapore, via Southampton Nov. 18
Ditto, via Marseilles Nov. 12.
Falkland Islands
Gibraltar, via Southampton ........ ....... ....Nov. 11.
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton.... Nov. 18
Ditto, via Marseilles ......N0v. 12.
India (Bombay), via Southampton. .. Nov. 11.
Ditto, via Marseilles Nov. 20.
Mauritius, via Southampton Nov. 11
Ditto, via Marseilles Nov. 0.
Newfoundland .• 4 Nov. 8.
Portugal .. Dee 4.

Ditto, by private ship to Lisbon.
United 'states and British North America, by Bri-
tish packet
Ditto, by United States packet, via Southamp-

............
ton

Ditto, via Cork
Ditto, by Canadian packet, via Londonderry.. Nov. 10
West Coast of Africa. Madeira, and Teneriffe Nov. A
West Indies and Pacific (except Bahamas, Cuba,
and Mexico •• Nov. 13.
Bahamas, via New York. 'Nov. 16
Bermuda, ditto Nov. : 2
Cuba and Mexico Nov. 28.

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•.~.~.

Mr. Wendell Phillips on Reconstructi

Mr. Wendell Phillips has made a speech condemning
President Johnson's reconstruction policy. The following
are some of the more important passages :
" When Lee sheathed his sword it was at the bidding of
Virginia, which had a voice more potent than that of tho
Federal Government. There was a third principle, which
was the accepted dogma of the South—that the tiro races
could never live together as equals. The negro may be a
laborer, but he never can exist with the white man on
the plane of equality. In order to content him on: the
plane of equality, on which it ought to be contended
naturally, if it were really natural law, the South must
illogically deduce an argument that he must be kept dis-
franchised and ignorant, because he could not be trusted
with equality. State sovereignty for the pedestal, and the
negro slave ignorant, in order that he might be contented.
The poor white, necessarily ignorant, from the universal
principle that you cannot degrade labor and at the same
time keep the laboring classes intelligent. The South,
standing on the pedestal of State rights, ruled the country
by negroes and poor whites in one hand, and, as Johnltan-
dolph said, by white slaves in the other. The Democratic
party of the North, caste, social aristocracy, mailed in State
rights, fired that gun at Sumter and inaugurated the re-
bellion. Caste, mailed in State rights, with the threefold
whip of the slave, the poor white, and the Northern slave,
ruled the Federal Union. Will the idea of tho impossibi-
lity of the two races on the plane of equality the South
started in 1861. Sherman has swept round the Gulf, Grant
has pushed Lee down to Fredericksburg. What of it ?
Where stands the South to-day? and whore stands et
North? ? How much has the South sacrificed? What
one principle has she disowned? What one element of
strength has she parted with in political affairs ? State
rights untouched. From the President at Washington to
the last rebel convention that has ever assembled, no word
has ever been uttered against the indestructible nature of
State Sovereignty. There is no crime in the Decalogue of
either national or international 'law that can cripple the
indestructible sovereignty of the States. That is the nor-
mal line that runs through every act and every address of
President Johnson. With ono or two exceptions, no
Southerner has ventured to call the secession a nullity.
The act which they did they repealed. They assert its
validity by the very act of repealing it. They come into
the Union as they went out of the Union—an aristocracy.
No ono single act of the return is submitted to the peophle.
No one single act was submitted to the peoPle' T
same oligarchy that broke up the
to re-enter it with the same steps, with; ,t
same usage, under the flag of the same Princ'l3
" The negro perhaps—not certainly—perhaps they' have
parted with the chattel principle with the idea that the
There are
t
negro may be sold on the auction block.
Not yet
favourable auguries that that may be possible.
achieved, not even insisted upon, by no means it eel'
Union condescend
tainty ; but putting that aside, education, labor, Pr°PertY'
marriage, locomotion, citizenship, suffrage,
every single
point that determines the condition of the man, the State'
the sacred, indestructible, inapproachable State, still keePs
folded in her bosom, denying with the full consent of On
Federal Government that they have any right to touch it.
The negro if ho is a wanderer, says the state of lilississiPPit
we sell him for the benefit of the Treasury of the Stat.'
Whether he may be married, whether ho may .0
whether he may be educated, whether he may more III)!
place to place, whether ho may own land, whether he inag
lay up money, whether he is to be a citizen, whether h:
is to sit on a jury, whether he is to be a witness in 11
own case, whether he can go to the polls, whether lulea
can have any rights, or any protection remains in tte
sealed purpose of the obligarchy of the South. Sta
rights, subordination of labor, the impracticability of tb
two races living equally together, the principles 1113°1".
which the South went out, upon those principles 011:
returns. Not a single rebel State Convention has /lee
uttered a doubtful note on any of these points' Tni
same men with the same theories, and with the saran "
ments of Government are to put their hands on the he '
of state. Now; wherein, and to what extent h dour
Southern idea of civilization been crippled ? ,;
thousand million of dollars, half a million of lives, .
years of war, and yet the North does not claim, and
South does not confess one single change in the relationf
of the past, unless in the future that single eleinellt °
chattolism shall bo taken out of the political column."
The following is an extract from the peroration Of gr
Phillips' speech concerning President Johnson
If you would avoid the alternative of "a country lash Rte
wretchedness and infamy into a new civil war cheekrat;
Johnson. Do you own a bank share? I warn you nt
repudiation is behind the President's plan. Arn 51)-he
merchant, and think, when the laboring system of
t
South is finished, you will have a crop of cotton ? Ch, of
You will have a harvest of blood ;" and this harfent °
blood will bo the horrors of St. Domingo. fne negro
has felt freedom, has used arms," and, continues Phillips,
he "holds his hand on the neck of Mr. MiCulloch, and,l,l:
can strangle your finances, because the justice of God
his fate the measure of your prosperity."