The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-11 00:00:00

TEE TRENT AFFAIR,

`l'IlE OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
LIVERPOOL, FRIDAY.
' By the Jura we have received further details of
Messrs. Mason and Slidell.
The first is a letter from Secretary Seward to Mr.
Adams, the American Minister in London, dated
Nov. 30, 1861. Mr. Seward in this letter compli-
ments Mr. Adams for speaking and acting so wisely
at the Lord Mayor's dinner, and also states that he
told Lord Palmerston the simple fact when inform-
ing him that the life of the insurrection is sustained
by the hopes of a recognition of the Southern Con-
federacy by England and France, and if those hopes
ceased the insurrection would perish in 90 days. lie
refers in the same note to the fact of the arrest of
Slidell and Mason by Capt. Wilkes as a new and
unforscen circumstance, which is to be met by the
two Governments, if possible, in a kindly spirit.
Lord Lyons had said nothing on the subject, and no
explanations were furnished to Minister Adams, it
being deemed prudent that the ground taken by
the British Government should be first made known
at Washington, and discussion he had there, but
Mr. Seward deemed it proper to state that Captain
Wilkes acted without instructions, and the subject,
therefore, is free from the embarrassments that
might have ensued if the act had been specially
directed. He trusts that the British Government
will consider the subject in a friendly temper, and
it may expect the best disposition on the part of the
Washington Cabinet.
The next letter is from Earl Russell to Lord
Lyons, dated Nov. 30, which details tho Trent
affair. - He says :
" It thus appears that certain individuals have

been forcibly taken from a British vessel—the ship
of a neutral Power on a lawful and innocent voyage,
—an act of violence which was an affront to the
British flag and a violation of national laws. Her
Majesty's Government are willing to believe the act
was without authority and resulted from misunder-
standing, as the Government of the United States
must be fully aware that the British Government
will not allow such an affront to its national honour
to pass without due reparation ; and the British
Government are unwilling to believe that the
United States deliberately intended unnecessarily
to force a discussion of so grave a question between
the two Governments. Her Majesty's Government

trusts that the Government of the United States

will of its own accord offer such redress as alone
could satisfy them—namely, the liberation of the
four prisoners and their delivery to Lord Lyons,
that they may again be placed under British pro-
tection, and a suitable apology for the aggression
committed. Should these terms not be offered by
Mr. Seward, you will propose them to him.
Mr. Seward replies to Lord Lyons (by whom he

was furnished with a copy of Earl Russell's letter)
stating that the despatch has been submitted to the
President. Mr. Seward says :—" The British Go-
vernment rightly conjectured what it is now my
duty to state, that Captain Wilkes acted upon his
own suggestions of duty, without any direction or
instructions, or even foreknowledge of it, on the
part of this Government. No directions had
been given him, or any other naval officer, to
arrest the four persons, or any of them, or
the Trent, or any other British vessel, or any neutral
vessel, there or elsewhere." After discussing the
whole question at great length in all its bearings,
Mr. Seward says—" I trust I have shown to the
satisfaction of the British Government, by a very
simple and natural statement of facts, and an analy-
sis of the law applicable to them, that this Govern-
ment has neither meditated, nor practiced, nor
approved, any deliberate wrong in the transaction
to which they have called its attention ; and, on the
contrary, that what has happened has been simply
an inadvertency consisting in a departure by the
naval officer—free from any wrongful motive—from
a rule uncertainly established, and probably by the
several parties concerned, either imperfectly under-
stood or entirely unknown. For this error the
British Government has a right to expect the same
reparation that we, as an independent State, should
expect from Great Britain or from any friendly na-
tion in a similar case. I have not been unaware
that in examining this question I have fallen into
an argument for what seems to be the British side
of it against my own country, but I am relieved
from all embarrassments on that subject. I had
hardly fallen into that line of argument when I
discovered that I was really defending and main-
taining not an exclusively British interest, but an
old honoured and cherished American cause; not
upon British authorities, but upon principles that
constitute a large portion of the distinctive policy by
which the United States have developed the re-
sources of a continent, and thus becoming a con-
siderable maritime Power have won the respect and
confidence of many nations. These principles were
laid down for us by James Madison in 1804, when
Secretary of State under Jefferson, in instructions
to James Monroe, our then Minister to England,"

Mr. Seward says, after quoting these instruc-
ions,—

"If I decide this case in favour of my own
Government I must disallow its most cherished
principles, and reverse and for ever abandon
its essential policy. The country cannot afford
the sacrifice: If I maintain those principles and
adhere to that policy I must surrender the case
itself. It will be seen, therefore, that this Govern-
ment could not deny the justice of the claim pre-
sented. We are asked to do to the British nation
just what we have always insisted all nations ought
to do to us. In coming to my conclusion, I have
not forgotten that if the safety of this Union re-
quired the detention of the captured prisoners it
would be the right and duty of this government to
detain them ; but the effectual check and waning
proportions of the existing insurrection, as well as
the comparative unimportance of the captured per-
sons themselves, when dispassionately weighed,
happily forbid me from resorting to that defence.
Nor am I unaware that American citizens are not
in any case to be unnecessarily surrendered for any
purpose into the keeping of a foreign State. Only
the captured persons, however, or others who are
interested in them, could justly raise a question on
_ _

that ground. It would tell little for our own claims
to the character of a just and magnanimous people
if we should so far consent to be guided by the law
of retaliation so as to lift up buried injuries against
national consistency and national conscience. Put-
ting behind me all suggestions of this kind, i prefer
to express my satisfaction that by the adjustment
of the present case upon principles confessedly
American, and yet, as I trust, mutually satisfactory
to both nations concerned, a question is finally and
rightly settled between them, which heretofore ex-
haasted not only all forms of peaceful discussion,
but also the arbitrament of war itself, for more
than half a century alienated the two countries
from each other, and perplexed with fears and ap-
prehensions all other nations. The four persons in
question are now held in military custody at Fort
Warren, in the State of Massachusetts. They will
be cheerfully liberated. Your Lordship will please
indicate a time and place fur receiving them.
" I renew, &c.,
" W. IL SL' WARD."
The despatch from M. Thouvenel to M. Mercier,
the French Minister at Washington, as already

published, is also contained in the correspondence.
The following is from Lord Lyons to Mr.
Seward :

" Washington, Dec. 27.
" I have this morning received the note which
you did me the honour to address to me yesterday
in answer to Earl Russell's despatch of November
30, relative to the removal of Mr. Slidell, Mr.
Mason, Mr. Worland, and Mr. Eustis from the
British mail packet Trent. I will, without loss of
time, forward to Her Majesty's Government a copy
of the important communication which you have
made to me.

" I Will, also, Without delay, do myself the honour

to confer with you personally on the arrangement
to be made for delivering the four gentlemen to me
in order that they may be again placed under the
protection of the British flag.
" I have the honour, &c.,

" LYONS."

A Washington telegram of the 28th says that the
decision of the President in this affair as announced
in Mr. Seward's despatch has the approval of every
member of the Cabinet.

The Washington .National Intelligence?. (the organ
of the Administration), in an article apparently
semi-official, says :
" Whatiwer may be the disappointment of any at the re-
sult to which the Administration has come in settling a
question constitutionally, devolved upon the executive
branch of the Government, wo are sure all will applaud the
firmness and sincerity in which the Administration, resist-
ing a natural tendency impressed by the conceited drift of
public opinion in our own country, has resolved to do what
it believes to be right in the premises, and it surely should
cause to pause all who may be disposed to challenge the
propriety of the resolution to which the Administration has
conic when they note that a contrary decision would leave us
in apposition, not only to the views of Groat Britain, but
also to those of the Government of Franco respecting the
principles of public law involved in this transaction."

The Intelligencer says, in conclusion :
" Whatever, therefore, may hek said by any in the way of
exception to the extreme terms Of the demand made by the
British Government in the case of the Trent, it is, at least,
just to admit that the case has been so adjusted by our Go-
vernment as to subserve, we hope, the great cause of neutral
rights against the assumptions heretofore asserted by Eng-
land, but now repudiated by that Power in common with
France and the United States. The law of nations, as
traditionally interpreted by our Government, has received
a now sanction, though at tftti- cost, it may be, of some
national senaibilitiegiost4ttita disproportionate activity
by the temporary exacerbations of our civil feuds ; the latter,
let us remember, arc but for a day, the law of nations is for
all time,"