The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-29 00:00:00

RIGHT OF SEARCH.

The Presse, noticing a statement by one of the
ournals that the French Minister of Marine has recog-
nised the right of English cruisers to search French
vessels on the coast of Africa, ITith a view to the more
effectual abolition of the slave trade, says :
" We knew very vrell that this exercise of maritime
police, under pretence of executing the treaty, was al-
ways one of the secret objects of the philanthropic
manifestations of England ; we knew that she had suc-
ceeded in obtaining the recognition of this right of
search from all the secondary Powers ; but we also
knew that France had energetically rejected this pre-
tension. We knew what reply M. de Talleyrand made
in 1814 to the application addressed to him on this
subject by the Duke of Wellington in his note of
August the 26th, and with what firmness M. Tal-
leyrand again declared to Lord Castlereagh, at the
Congress of Vienna, that France would not admit, in
principle or practice, any other maritime police than
that of each Power over its own vessels. We knew,
also, that the same pretension having been set up by
England at the Congress of Verona in the name of
morality and philanthropy, M. de Chateaubriand re-
plied to the remarks in the following terms :—‘ Ai to
the right of search, if the French Government would
ever consent to it, it would be attended with the worst
consequences ; for the national character of the French
and English people is opposed to it. France recognises
the freedom of the seas for all flags, and she claims for
herself only the independence which she respects in
others, and which is suitable to her dignity.' It is evi-
dent, then, that France had constantly protested, in the
name of liberty, against this pretension of the cunning
diplomacy of England to exercise a maritime police.
Has England since obtained what she could not obtain
at Vienna or Verona, and what was so energetically re-
fused to her by the conquered France of 1814?—and if
so, has it been by treaty, or by a ministerial decision ?
We cannot believe that she has obtained it ; but the
Government owes it to the public not to leave the ques-
tion in doubt. If, contrary to what appears to us to be
possible, an abandonment of precedents full of dignity
should have taken place, the Government ought, at
least, to state the motives of its conduct."

The Moniteur Parisien makes the following reply :
" The Globe having mentioned a fact to which it at-
tached some importance, the Presse, led by it into an
error, asks whether it be true that the French Minister
of Marine has acceded to the English cruisers the right
of visiting French merchant vessels on the coast of
Africa, under the pretext of repressing the slave trade ;
adding, that France alone, among all the European na-
tions, has always refused to England this humiliating
right. This is all erroneous, and may be thus explained.
The right of visiting is reciprocal. It results from the
treaty of 1833, which binds England, France, Sweden,
Denmark, and the-Netherlands to the abolition of this
trade. Since that treaty the French cruisers have ex-
ercised this maritime police on English as well as on
all other vessels, as the French vessels have in return
been subject to it, and our Minister of the Marine
delivers, in this respect, the same commission to our
cruisers on the African coast as the English Admiralty
delivers to its cruisers."

The Presse, in alluding to the reply of the lllonileur
Parisien as to the right of search by England of vessels
suspected of carrying on the slave trade, says :
'• If it be true that England asserts this power in
virtue of a treaty in 1833, we have only to regret that
the new regime in France should, in this affair, have
shown itself less jealous of the dignity of our flag than
that which preceded it. As to the observation, that
the right of search is reciprocal between France and
England, it diminishes very little, in our eyeF, the fault
that has been committed. England, undoubtedly,
never understood the subject in any other way, and it
was this right of reciprocal police which had previously
always been energetically refused."

ARMY AND NAVY.—The December Numher
of The United Service Journal, and .Naval and Military
Magazine, contains, among other important papers :
Anson's Expedition.—The British Colonies considered
as Military Posts, by Lieut. Col. Wilkie.—llistorical
Details relative to the Military Force of Great Britain.
—Syria, during the Campaign against Mehemet Ali.
—Confessions of a Spy.—Anecdotes of Camperdown.—
A March and Detachment in Ireland.—Nights on the
Fo' Castle. By the Author of " Battlin the Reefer."—
Journal of the Operations in China by Sea.—Land Ope-
rations before Canton in May, by an Officer of the
Force.—Move to Maroon Town.—Statistics of Recruit-
ing.—Sir Gordon Bremer and Captain Elliot.—Exami-
nations at Sandhurst.--The Brevet and all its details.
Presentations of Colours to the 99th Regiment.—Distri-
bution of the Army and Navy, with all the Naval and
Military Intelligence of the Month.
We understand that an official Report respecting
the combustible parcels thrown into the barracks has been
made to the proper authorities, and that it differs in no
respect from what we stated last week. The most scru-
tinizing examination has failed to discover any substance
in these paltry combustible parcels calculated to de mis-
chief, thrown, as they were, into the open space of the
barracks.—Observer.
The Commissioners appointed to inquire into the
mode and expense of the collection of the Public Re-
venue have selected for their Secretary Mr. Thomas
Peregrine Courtenay, of the Treasury, a gentleman
qualified in every respect for the office. We hear that
tab ishm proceeden t
s t o
of
that
great commercial
Lord Granville Somerset and the other Commissioners
Liverpool, inquireto
port.int
o
l
Mr. Courtenay, their Secretary, was
thewi l revenue immediately
cs
previously the Pri
vate Secretary of Sir George Clerk.-05s