The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.

GLOBE.—The following sentence will excite
a smile, rather than produce apprehensions,
on this side of the Atlantic. President 'Tyler ex-
presses his " regret that he is unable to core-
. municate a satisfactory conclusion in the case of
the Caroline steamer. No such atonement as was due
for the public wrong done to the United States by this
invasion of her territory, so wholly irreconcileable
with her rights as an independent Power, has yet been
made." If the President's " regrets" find no relief
until Great Britain admits that the destruction of the
Caroline was a wrongful act, for which " atonement"
must be made by the British to the American Govern-
ment, we think he is likely to go mourning all his days.
The answer to this bit of gasconade is—"lf the American
Government cannot prevent its own border subjects
from aiding and abetting British subjects in a state of
rebellion, but allows, by not preventing, them to
fit out a vessel, laden with arms, ammunition, and other
military stores, for the service of those rebels, then
Great Britain must and will, upon the principles of
self-defence, which involve the right of preventing
as well as resisting an attack, do that which the
American Government ought to have rendered un-
necessary—she will destroy such vessel with her
lading, and thus defeat the designs of sympathisers'
with rebels against her Crown and dignity, by de-
stroying the arms and stores about to be landed
for the use of such rebels, before they reach her own
shores." The evidence adduced even by the Americans
in the prosecution of M'Leod, is a sufficient answer to
the call for "atonement." It is for Great Britain to re-
quire from America that security be given for the future
prevention of a similar infraction of international
law by her border subjects, to that which rendered
the burning of the Caroline, by the British, an act
necessary for the preservation of their own territory
and fellow-subjects, thus impudently threatened,
and actually visited with invasion. The Message al-
ludes in strong terms to the "right of search"—of all
others, perhaps, the question on which the American
people are most sensitive. The subject is revived with
new grounds of apprehension by the recent convention
entered into by the Five European Powers for the
effectual suppression of the Slave Trade. The
sensitiveness of the Americans on this subject is,
we fear, to be accounted for on grounds far more ques-
tionable than that of national honour. The right
claimed by the British Government " to visit and detain
vessels trading under the American fleg, and engaged
in prosecuting lawful commerce in the African seas,"
will cease to be a ground of apprehension, much
less of positive complaint, the moment that Ame-
rica, by becoming a party to that convention, avows her
detestation of the inhuman and un-Christian slave-
traffic by a specific act, and sets the Southern States of
her Union an example which they will do well to imi-
tate, of getting rid of that foul blot upon their character
as a free people—the stigma of domestic slavery.
STANDARD.—The capture and destruction of
the Caroline may be disposed of under Mr. Tyler's
own saving of cases of extreme danger. The case was
one of extreme danger—the lives end property of the
Queen's subjects were put in peril. A rebellion
in the Queen's dominions was promoted and en-
couraged by the miscreants in whose service the
vessel was employed ; the local Republican autho-
rities were unable or unwilling to check the evil;
and the delay necessary for a communication with Was-
hington must have caused the destruction of many lives
and of much property, and greatly augmented
the chances of success to the Canadian rebels.
But we have ever looked upon it as one of the grave
crimes of the Whig-Radical Cabinet, that they left
this question unsettled, so as to place their country
in a false position. Great Britain was the aggrieved
party, and it was for Great Britain to complain, and
to demand reparation. It- is nothing to the purpose
to say, that the American Government did not
authorise the violation of the British territory and
the murder of our Queen's subjects. The Ameri-
can Government permitted both, and would now re-
trospectively protect both by demanding an indem-
nity for the resistance offered to them. The laws of
the Republic may disable its Government from pre-
venting such crimes, and the constitution of a demo-
cracy even degrade its magistrates to the necessity of
attempting to justify them, but this is the defence of
the government and magistrate, not, the defence of the
public in its corporate character ; and with the repub-
lic in its corporate character only, have other nations
anything to do. Reparation for the violation of the
British territory ought to have been firmly de-
manded of the Republic ; and for the Republic it was
either to avow that violation, or to repair the wrong
done by the punishment of the perpetrators. The Presi-
dent's allusion to the right of search directs to another
ease in which the Republic is setfisolated from the civi-
lised community of the world. All the nations of Europe
have agreed to a reciprocal right of search as necessary
to put an end to the execrable slave-trade. The asser-
ton or acknowledgment of such a reciprocal right
implies no superiority in any one nation—all are placed
on a footing of perfect equality. But the United
States will not agree to the exercise of such a right,
though none can deny that it is absoiutely necessary
to prevent the perpetuation of all the horrors of the
abominable traffic in human beings, which is proved to
cost at present one thousand murders every day the
sun rises. What is the inference from this self-isclatiort
of the Republic ? The answer occurs to every one, but
it is too painful and too offensive to be lightly written.
COURIER.—The Lord Mayor of Dublin has be-
come tame, timid, and spiritless ; the fierce agitator
has dwindled into a mere manufacturer of faggot
freemen and faggot voters ; the apostle of repeal has
been metamorphosed into a petty squabbler for cor-
poration pickings ; and to render the conversion
still more complete, the advocate and eulogist of
the ballot—he who saw in it a shield against bribery
and an impenetrable defence against intimidation, has
became its bitterist and most furious opponent. " Let
(exclaims the purity-loving and consistent Lord Mayor
ot:Dublin), the country have the benefit of vote by bal-
lot, but let no councillor dare propose its introduction into
the—ancient and loyal ? no !—but modern and patriotic,
Corporation of Dublin. Its secrecy may contribute to
the purity of parliamentary elections ; but if appoint-
ments to civic offices—my just and reasonable perqui-
sites—were to be determined on the ballot system,
my creatures would be in danger—the paltry tools I
work with would be rejected—my will would cease to
be law, and my orders no longer observed as obligatory
mandates ; therefore, the ballot system I shall assail as
favourable to corruption and jobbery of every kind, and
not only oppose the system, but denounce its suppor-
ters."' Such is the transformation that has been effected
by the civic honours which now adorn the brow
of the burly agitator ; yet the essential qualities of the
man remain unaffected and untouched. He is, Mr.
Ignatius Callaghan will vouch for it, as mean and ma-
lignant, as selfish, as ungrateful and as treacherous, as
ever ; and though he tries to curb the license of his
ill-mannered tongue, its innate impurity occasionally
bursts forth in defiance alke of prudence and
decency, and re-asserts the foulness of its nature.
But the important point for consideration is, whether
or not his occupancy of the Dublin Mansion House
tends to augment his power or add to his mischievous-
ness. For our part, we are firmly persuaded its
tendency is in the very opposite direction. Already
his squabbles in the Corporation have alienated
from him some of the oldest and staunchest of his
supporters ; the flagrantly disgraceful manner in
which he manufactures freemen, and creates voters
for himself at the next election for Dublin, has
disgusted every impartial minded man in the
United Kingdom, and the recklessness with which he is
seeking to monopolise all the good things of the corpo-
ration his placed his insatiable rapacity in a new and
strikingly prominent point of view. In one year the
office of Lord Mayor will have done more to disclose
Mr. O'Connell's real character to his fellow-citizens,
and what is of infinitely more importance, to his fellow-
countrymen, than would twenty years' shuffling incon-
sistency on the floor of the House of Commons.

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