The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-08 00:00:00

THE AFFAIR OF THE TRENT.

At the meeting of the Juridical Society held last night,
at their rooms, St. Martin's-place, Trafalgar-square, the
points of national law involved in the arrest of Messrs.
Slidell and Mason by Captain Wilkes were again discussed.
At the last meeting of the society, Mr. Charles Clarke read
a paper upon the subject, in which he deduced from judg-
ments delivered in the Admiralty courts the following
principles :—" First, that as a rule a ship is part of the soil
of the country to which it belongs, subject to certain excep •
tions—one of which is the right of a belligerent ship to
search it, though a neutral, for contraband of war; se-
condly, that it has the general right of freely sailing over
the seas, carrying cargo, papers, and'persons ; but this cargo
must not be contraband, nor must the neutral engage itself to
do the service of a belligerent transport in the conveyance
of persons or papers between the belligerent mother coun-
try and its colonies ; for in such a case it may bo lawfully
treated as a belligerent transport. Thirdly, that where a
neutral vessel is bona fide pursuing its ordinary employ-
ment between a neutral and a belligerent country (a mita
fortiori where it is doing so between two neutral countries),
the fact that the vessel has received on board in the ordi-
nary way as casual individual passengers or papers, the offi-
cers or despatches of one belligerent will not authorise the
other belligerent to stop and search it, nor to take the per-
sons or papers from on board it. Lastly, that it is unlawful
for a vessel of one nation to stop the vessel of another na•
tion on the high seas, to take out of it a person charged as
a criminal, for such an act is an exorcise of a municipal
jurisdiction by one state within the limits of another which
can only be permitted by treaties previously existing be-
tween the two parties.
Mr. DANIEL, Q.C., last night carried the argument fur-
ther, and showed that between neutrals the rights of belli-
gerents did not intervene. If such aright was conceded there
was no limit to the length to which it might be carried, and
Capt. 'Wilkes would, under such circumstances, be as much
justified in seizing Mr. Slidell subsequent to his landing at
Southampton while crossing from Dover toCalais. The learned
gentleman quoted from Marriot's Reports the judgment of
Sir G. Hay in the case of the Hendrik and Alida to show
that a ship sailing from one neutral port to another, and
carrying munitions of war and also officers the proven
enemies of a belligerent, had a free right of passage over
the high seas. Mr. 'Westlake then called attention to the
opinion of the Hon. Caleb Cushing, formerly Attorney-
General of the United States, upon the subject. Ho denies
that the question is to be governed upon the principles
which regulate unpressraents, the right of search, the arrest
of persons on foreign national territory, or on board a ship,
which is quasi national territory, as fugitives from justice ;
the fresh pursuit of a public enemy ; of the seizure of ene-
my's despatches ;or the arrest of military persons. It rests
entirely, he states, upon the principle laid down by Lord
Stowell, and accepted by the best modern authorities, that
a belligerent has a right to stop, in itinere, enemy's ambas-
sadors, they being as yet unrecognised by the State to
which they were accredited, and much more so when they
were the unrecognised ambassadors of an unrecognised
State. In contravention of Mr. Seward he denies that the
case of Mr. Laurens is one in point, as it appeared from his
own narrative that the vessel in which ho sailed for the
Hague was a ship belonging to Congress, and not a neutral
ship, as has been alleged in America. He also denies that
it at all matters whether the captain of the Trer t was aware
either of the political character of Messrs, Slidell and Ma-
son, or knew of her Majesty's proclamation, the points re-
lied upon by Mr. Edwin James ; and he likewise throws
aside, as unimportant to the issue, the question of violence
on the part of the captors, and the fact that the Trent was
voyaging from one neutral port to another. The subjec'
was further discussed by Mr. Marshall and Mr. Lush
ington, &c., and the proceedings terminated in the usua
manner,
es,

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