The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-13 00:00:00

to whether there must be an official notification of
a peace, and whether an individual can be respon-
sible for ignoring a peace of which he is technically
ignorant." We are not quite so sure as our contem-
porary about the absurdity of consulting authority
in a matter so difficult to decide, and this is just one
of the cases where, while Capt. Wardell may be
morally wrong, he may be also technically right.
When the dogs of war are slipped, their masters
call them back, and when the master makes no sign,
it is open to question whether in continuing the chase
the dogs have not some kind of excuse. We put the
matter this way, because the very strong advocacy
of Northern interests shown in the proposal of the
Times that instructions should be sent out to the
command of our squadron in the Pacific to join
the American navy in hunting down this single
vessel, the Shenandoah, looks a little like forget-
fulness of precedent, and, indeed, of propriety.
We do not believe
,it would be palatable to Eng-
land to find its Pacific squadron thus employed/
while the entire strength of the United States navy
is free to capture this solitary survivor of the
Southern naval power. It would be a " friendly
act," no doubt, towards America • but it would be
a piece of hasty friendship that America should be
able to do without. This persistent privateer can
surely be caught and stopped by the able power which
took the envoys from the Trent, and swooped down
and overhauled with a high hand so many inoffen-
sive and neutral craft during the war. It is too bad
to ask us to help America in extinguishing this last
small spark of the Southern conflagration when it is
considered that during the contest America so fre-
quently helped herself in even neutral waters. Be'
sides, the proposition is evidently put forward as 3,
feeler. It is a hand of support held out to Earl
Russell, after the noble lord has done all that the
occasion requires by warning our colonial authori-
ties against harbouring or succouring the Shenan-
doah. We have not interfered by representations
of a humane character with the way in which it
pleases America to crush the last embers of the
Southern rebellion. Nothing has officially emanated
from England in deprecation of the treatment suf-
fered by Jefferson Davis. If we leave America un-
advised to deal with her captives we may well leave
her to do justice upon the single vessel which still
defies her ; and for the English and American fleets
to join in a crusade against a solitary privateer that
has not discovered the termination of the war, would
be imposing enough, perhaps, but nevertheless some-
what over-adequate and ridiculous. As to Captain
Wardell's proceedings, while we may deplore the
continuance of them, we do not well see how they
are to be prevented till the energetic commander has
fair warning that they are a little out of date. But
what we insist chiefly upon is, that England has no-
thing at all to do in the matter, and that the Times,
in advising English interference, is taking a dan-
gerous and uncalled-for course. Captain Wardell
must and should be dealt with by the United
States, for mankind has constantly to witness
grievances that wait for repression by those who
have provoked them. These ideas may perhaps
read coldly to new converts ; to advocates who are
for the plaintiff to-day and the defendant to-morrow,
and who are always to be found gravitating towards
the side of success. The Times has this failing. n
has veered hither and thither during the American
war till it found a resting-place in the arms of the
North. The Confederacy crushed, the wind novt
blows all from one quarter with the leading journal;
and whilst its correspondents abroad culminate the
South, at head-quarters it proposes to aid the North
in capturing a single ship by " instructions sent to
the commander of our Pacific squadron." it would
be better for the fleets of England to mind their
own business—which is the protection of the British
empire in all its ramifications—than to wast time/
money, and sympathy in helping a great power to
capture one despairing cruiser that still trouble;
American commerce. By all means let Captain
Wardell and his ship be warned of the facts, but let
the work be done by those whose duty it is to per-
form it. The circumstances of the whole case are
not such as to demand English interference ; and to
put an English fleet on the scent of a solitary op-
ponent of Yankee power would, we think, be hold-
ing America too cheap and making England too
forward.