The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-08 00:00:00

EVENING,

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS_ DA\.
TIMES.—The severe punishment inflicted by the
Spanish authorities at Havannah upon the first fifty
prisoners who fell into their hands, from the second
piratical expedition of General Lopez and his band
against the island of Cuba, appears to us to b 3 justi-
fied by the facts of this extraordinary case ; but it is
impossible not to deplore the misdirected bravery of
men who have thus forced upon a friendly Govern-
ment an act of indiscriminating slaughter. The peace
of the world and the maintenance of the fundamental
rights of all States positively require that it should
not be in the power of a gang of buccaneers to invade
a foreign territory, to let loose all the horrors of fire and
sword and negro insurrection in a flourishing colony,
and to prostitute the fair names of liberty and inde-
pendence to the crimes of rapine and bloodshed.
Against that heinous offence the laws of nations and
the necessity of the case provide but one remedy and
one effectual mode of repression. Men who delibe-
rately embark in such enterprises are, by the consent
of all nations, placed beyond the protection of
the law. They are enemies of the human race ;
they transgress at one and the same time the laws
of their own country, which prohibit and condemn
such conspiracies, and the rights of the country
they wantonly and desperately invade. They de-
serve the terrible fate they have encountered as much
as the burglar who is shot in attempting to break into
a house. In this particular instance every species of
warning had been given them. This attack was a
repetition of one which had miscarried but a few
months ago, when the Spaniards behaved with a
lenity that surprised us, and actually surrendered the
persons whom they had captured, intimating only
that on the next occurrence of a similar nature they
should exact the whole penalty of the law. The
American Government had likewise taken care to
disclaim all interest in men who could disgrace the
flag of their country by an open violation of its laws ;
and accordingly the United States Consul at Havan-
nah abstained from any attempt to impede the strict
execution of military justice. These men were taken
with arms in their hands in the waters of Cuba. They
appear to have formed part of the marauding force in
the " Pampero," which bad effected a landing under
General Lopez at Bahia Honda; but, for some reason
not clearly explained, they re-embarked in four
boats or launches, which were pursued and captured
on the 15th of August by the Spanish steamer-of-
war " Havanero," commanded by Admiral Bustillos.
Being brought into the port of Havannah in the night,
they were shot before the Castle of Atares the next
morning at eleven o'clock, in the presence of an im-
mense concourse of spectators, who appear, by all
accounts, to have loudly applauded the justice of the
sentence, and even, as is stated by the American
prints, to have treated the inanimate remains of these
misguided men with ferocity and insult. This last
circumstance may very likely have been added to
colour the appeals to popular vengeance current in
New Orleans; for the Americans seem to think that,
as they cannot deny the justice of the sentence, they,
may impugn the mode of execution. The more im-
portant part of this question is,:however, the effect
produced by it in the United States and upon the rela-
tions of that Power with Spain. The immense ma-
jority of the people of the United States must ac-
knowledge with ourselves that, upon such
repeated provocation and aggression, Spain had no
other course to pursue ; and we have not yet learnt
to think so ill of our descendants in the New World
as to suppose that they will identify themselves, from
mere vindictive feelings, with one of the grossest out-
rages that could be inflicted on a foreign State. It is
well for humanity when great principles can be main-
tained by the sole respect and authority due to the
law ; but if those conditions are violated the law
cannot remain suspended or unarmed. Men embarked
in this Cuban expedition from a vague notion that
they should escape the chances of wsr and capture as
easily as they baffled the police of the Federal Go-
vernment of the United States. They had been re-
peatedly warned of their danger, but probably not
one of them had " realized" his true position till it
was too late to recede. This example, therefore, was
in the highest degree necessary to demonstrate the
consequences of levying these private wars, and of
conspiring openly against the territorial rights of another
nation; nor can we doubt that it will have a great and
salutary effect in checking these expeditions, in which
a man risks his life, not as a soldier, but as a felon.
No doubt this melancholy occurrence will be largely
used in the United States as a means of political agi-
tation to discredit the existing Administration for its
alleged abandonment of American interests, and to
embroil the Union, if possible, with the Crown of
Spain, and so to renew the attack upon Cuba in a
more regular shape. So far, we are not indifferent to
the effect which this event may have on the choice and
conduct of Mr. Fillmore's successor; and we may live
to see the Cabinet of Washington, at no distant period,
in less dignified and conscientious hands. But, unless
the United States, with all the wealth and intelli-
gence of the north and the west, are prepared to
sacrifice their dearest interests in order to extend and
protect the interests of slavery in Cuba as well as in
their own sister States of the South, they will resist
at all hazards this wicked and dangerous conspiracy,
and will support Mr. Fillmore's Government in op-
posing one of the most dangerous schemes that has
ever been formed against the character and the wel-
fare of their common country.
HERALD.—We are not of the number of those
who would be prompt to suggest the interference of
Great Britain in every quarrel, or the tendering of
her mediation or advice in every difference that may
arise between other independent states. The history
of Europe, from 1793 to 1815, shows at least the
costliness, if not the inexpediency, of such interfe-
rence, and may well suggest to British statesmen and
politicians the propriety of thinking twice or thrice
before uttering or writing a single word, or before
taking the slightest steps, diplomatic or otherwise, in
any such grave question as we are adverting to.
Taxed as this country is, and has been for six-and-
thirty years, in consequence of long and expensive
wars, it becomes the duty of Great Britain to see that
her own real interests are menaced or injured ere she
utters a single remonstrance or puts forward a single
complaint. These prefatory remarks we make as in-
troductory to the question of Cuba, and as having
an indirect bearing on that question, totally irrespec-
tive of the question of international law. Most as-
suredly we owe no international courtesies to the
imbecile and corrupt Government of Spain. That
Government has not only exhibited the grossest
ingratitude for the sacrifices of blood and
treasure we made in her cause from 1809
to 1814, but for the still later sacrifices
made for, and services rendered to, her in 1834, 1835
and 1136, under the treaty of the Quadruple Alli-
ance. Spain has not only given us no advantages or
indemnities, but has treated our representatives with
contumely and neglect. In affairs of commerce we
enjoy no special privileges. No reciprocity treaty on
a large scale between Spain and Great Britain has
yet been negotiated or signed, and the manner in
which our holders of Spanish Bonds have been treated
has been flagrantly unjust, dishonest, and unworthy
of any nation pretending to be civilised. On the ex-
pulsion of our ambassador from Madrid in 1847 we
do not now stop to speak, for already our opinions are
recorded on that subject in reference to the questions
of international law and justice. But the manner and
mode of that expulsion, altogether apart from the
question of its justice or expediency, were such as to
disentitle Spain to the least favour at our bands. Inde-
pendently of these national, or rather personal, consi-
derations existing between the two states, the general
march of the Government of Spain for the last ten
years has not been such as to entitle it to Bri-
tish sympathy or respect. Its course, both at
home and abroad, both in its dominions in Europe
and beyond the seas (to render literally the expres-
sive Ultramar), has been narrow-minded, perverse,
and retrograde, and nowhere more so than in the
island of Cuba. But though the conduct of Spain in
our regard has been unjust, ungrateful, and positively
dishonest--though the Administration of Spain has
been unenlightened and unjust at home, and tyran-
nous and oppressive colonially, yet we have no right
to look at our own wrongs through the light of its
colonial administration. Whether as a government
or a people we are bound to express an opinion on
lawless buccaneering and brigandish expeditions of
other nations, striking at the root of all authority
and of all government, is quite another question.
Cuba is as much a lawful possession of Spain as the
Isle of Man, the Isle of Skye, or Ireland is of Great
Britain, and Spain has as much right, according
to the public law of Europe, to consider as law-
less invaders and buccaneers those who land on
her shores, as we should have so to regard General
Lopez and his crew if they were to land at Galway
or Mutton Island, with a view to repeal the union
between Great Britain and Ireland, and liberate our
Celtic brethren from what the late Daniel O'Con-
nell called "the galling yoke of the Saxon." This
much it is necessary to state in reference to the re-
marks of a Radical journal of Saturday, which seems.
to consider that the ill-conduct and ingratitude of
Spain towards ourselves were ingredients which could
be imported into our view of the case. That th
a re
ey
cannot be so imported is abundantly clear. We
bound to regard Spain as an integral portion of the
European system, created by the treaty law of Europe.
If it be lawful to despoil Spain of Cuba on pretences.
such as are alleged by the buccaneers, why may it
Cylor, the Indies, or
not be lawful to despoil the Forte of buccaneers, why'
Great
Denmark of St.
.Thomas's or St.
even
ntaionf olfrelGanibdr;alptaern,
Croix ;or France of St. Pierre. or Miquelon ? Every
infraction of public law of this nature leads to gene-
ral insecurity, and increases the danger of war.
Considerations of this kind fully justified the Captain
General of Cuba in taking the most summary and the
most severe measures in dealing with the band of pirates
who invaded the territory of Spain ; and the United
States Government (qua Government) is not in a posi-
tion to remonstrate, still less to retaliate, with any