The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-09 00:00:00

BIGHTS OF NEUTRALS•

(From tire New York. Journal of Commerce).
The liberality of the belligerents in their construction
of the restrictions imposed on neutral nations by the
precepts of public law has averted, thus far in the pre-
sent conflict, most of those embarrassing questions
which in previous wars have either threatened to bring
new parties into the contest or have laid the foundation
of future reclamations or quarrels. Both sides have
shown an eagerness to conciliate the sympathies of other
nations, and have sought to avoid grounds of dissatis-
faction ; and, if either has provoked the just resentment
of a friendly Power, as was the case when England at-
tempted to enlist recruits for her army in the United
States, the wrong has been redressed by prompt disa-
vowal of intentional offence and unqualified assurance
against its repetition. The case was very different in
the great wars waged in the early part of the present
century, in which France and England were parties on
opposite sides, and each of whom in prosecuting hostili-
ties manifested an overbearing and insolent disregard
of the rights and defiance of the power of neutral
nations. The orders and decrees of successive French
Governments—those of the Directory, Consulate, and
Empire—resulted in depredations on our commerce
that after many years of negotiation were atoned
for by a partial indemnity of $5,000,000, paid by
France in 1836. The practical assertion of a pre-
tended right to search our ships and impress our
seamen by the cruisers of Great Britain was a still
more irritating and oppressive proceeding on the
part of that Power, and its persistent exercise
ultimately forced us to the arbitrement of war, in
which w• happily succeeded in achieving the esta-
blishment of the freedom of the seas. Bet the French
indemnity did not compensate the sufferers to the extent
of more than one-third of their just claims ; and a com-
plete prostration of commerce was only one of the im-
portant sacrifices that resulted upon the vindication of
our lights invaded by the greatest maritime Power of
the world. Experience admonishes us that it is better
to seek to prevent a wrong and to "avoid entrance into
a quarrel " than to trust to the chances of diplomacy
or war for relief from losses that have already been in-
curred. Happily, in the conflicts that were forced
upon us we so bore ourselves that to secure henceforth
freedom from foreign molestation there is no occa-
sion for manifesting the spirit of our people or the
prowess of the nation. The exercise of magnanimity
in making liberal allowances in favour of the exigencies
of either of the belligerents in the present war will not
be rniscontrued into want of confidence in an ability to
maintain our own rights ; nor will prudence in the con-
duct of our foreign relations be imputed to any other
sentiment than that ennobling one which goes beyond
patriotism to comprehend philanthropy in its regard,
and seeks to reconcile the promotion of the national in-
terests with which it is primarily concerned with the re-
storation of universal harmony and the progress of
civilisation among mankind.
At the commencement of the war waging, the subject
of neutral right was one of considerable interest and
anxiety to maritime nations throughout the world.
Apprehension, however, was speedily allayed, by the
declarations of the British and French Governments
of their determination to yield most of the con-
cessions claimed to be demanded by the expansion of
commercial interests and by the progressive humanity
of the age. These concessions essentially modified the
more restrictive provisions of public law, which had
operated with chief severity in former wars on the
transactions of trade. Russia gave a theoretical con-
sent to a still more liberal construction of the inter-
national code In no case was there any claim advanced
on either side, as respects neutrals, which had not
the sanction of previous practice and of the highest
legal anti ority. The altered state of affairs pro-
duced by the actual pendency of war suggested pri-
vate mercantile enterprises and adventures, whose pro-
jectors, in some instances, sought to secure for them
the guarantee to be derived from a declaration of their
legality by the British Government. Day after day the
English papers published letters seeking assurance from
the Government in respect to some new point which the
change in affairs presented for solution. With a prudence
characteristic of British statesmen, a commendable re-
serve was maintained in respect to all those cases in which
the rights of others than a party to the application, whe-
ther citizens or foreigner., might be affected by the deci-
sion. The Government replied that it was the province
of the judicial tribunals of the country to interpret the
law in its application to such cases as were presented for
their decision in the ordinary course of business, and re-
fused to commit itself by assurances that the courts were
competent to overrule. The applicants were referred to
their private legal advisers, and told that they must incur
the risk that attends all transactions as regards their con-
formity to law. The Government claimed no power to
alter the public law so far as the rights of other par-
ties might be affected by its provisions, except to enlarge
those rights by granting privileges as against itself. It
declared a willingness to waive to a certain extent its
own rights, or rather those controverted claims which
belligerents in former times had practically asserted, to
the great injury of neutral trade ; but it did not assume
to cornier upon its subjects other rights than those which
confessedly belonged to it to bestow.
The Same wisdom and prudent anticipation of pos-
sibly embarrassing consequences have not always cha-
racterised the course of our own Government. A case
in point occurred during Mr. Fillmore's Administration,
when perhaps the greatest statesman that ever directed
our comnsels was at the head of the Department of
State. A great mercantile adventure was undertaken
with the, assurance given by that eminent man, to which
his official position was supposed erroneously to attach
peculiar weight, that the Government of Peru had no
such property in the Chiacha Islands as entitled it to
control the exportation of guano therefrom. The enter-
prise involved all the parties to it in disaster. Peru as-
serted and maintained her exclusive right. The Govern-
ment of the United States was drawn into the presenta-
tion °la claim from which it was subsequently forced
to recede. The private citizens at whose cost the expe-
ditions was fitted out are now asking indemnity of the
Government for losses incurred in its prosecution.
We attach no great practical importance to the
Greeeneerntl
prom ulgation of an opinion by Mr. Attorney !‘
rigo
good
heavtesnalief oe fffeacbelligerent sshi itputpoo an vg tawsoeuall
d
Chso oulsdko
that the sale be in good faith, beyond the tendency
which the declaration of such an opinion has to establish
a precedent that in future practice might commit they
Government to embarrassing controversies which it 4
cyvneA
could otherwise properly avoid. The claim advance, i
by the Attorney-General in this connexion is at least *
clioknetlryotvo
ered on
arise, to e
,
test
are not likely to purchase Russian ships exposed to gag).
tore by French and British cruisiers upon the high 'seas,
except at a price that, instead of establishing the good
andits no
application.CaSh arisen,
Oar or
o
unite ry
en
r
faith of the transaction, would tend rather to show that it
was a mere evasion of the liabilities of a belligerent.
But, if such a case should occur, its prejudication by the
ipse dixit of the Attorney-General would in no manner
control the decision of the Court charged with jurisdic-
tion of it, while it might involve the United States' Go-
veranient in the discussion of difficult questions with
England, and, it the sale were pronounced illegal, would
inevitably expose it to the importunities for indemnity
of the party who had paid his money without securing
the purchase.

CRYBTAL PALACE, JAN. 8 (ONE SHILLING DAT).—
AdmiEsions on payment, 831 ; ditto by season tickets,
205 ; total vißitore, 1,036.