The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-03 00:00:00

ANOTHER UNOFFICIAL AMBASSADOR

We have authority for qualifying the statement
of the Shipping Gazette as to the character in which
Mr. W. S. Lindsay, M.P., is about to visit the
United States. The journey which the hon. gen-
tleman is about to undertake is entirely a private
one, and he is not invested by the Government with
any authoritative capacity. Mr. Lindsay will,
however, use what influence he may possess as one
of the representatives of the British mercantile
shipping interest to induce the Government of the
States to consens to negotiate for the adjustment of
various questions important to the shipping trade
of both countries. He will also endeavour to bring
about a more liberal treatment of British shipping
with regard to the coasting trade of the States,
from which it is now excluded, although we admit
theirs to the freest participation in our trade. Her
Majesty's Government, desirous of assisting Mr.
Lindsay in the accomplishment of his views, have
supplied him with all the correspondence which
has taken place between the two Governments on
this subject. Should Mr. Lindsay's exertions lead
to the opening, of negotiations, they will be, of
course, conducted on our side by our accredited re
presentative at Washington Lord Lyons, with
whom Mr. Lindsay will put himself into communi-
cation, and who is authorised to facilitate the sub-
ject as much as possible. The recent report of the
Select Committee on Merchant Shipping puts pro-
minently forward the questions bearing upon the
grievances which British shipowners complain of,
and which in some instances bear with equal
severity upon those of the United States. In
the first place, there is the coasting trade. W.
have thrown open to all the world not only our
foreign and colonial trade, but our coasting trade
also. The American Government, while profess-
ing to reciprocate our liberal policy with regard
to their foreign trade, have hitherto declined to
open their coasting trade, and by including in
this designation their trade from the Atlantic
seaboard of the States to California, either by way
of Panama or round Cape Horn, they have, in point
of fact, withheld that which could only be in some
degree an equivalent for the opening of our colonial
trae to them. Our Protectionist shipowners, who
were chiefly concerned in the agitation of last year,
called aloud for reprisals. That is quite out of the
question. We shall not in any point reverse the
free-trade policy we have adopted, from the convic-
tion of the soundness of the principles upon which
it is founded ; but if anything can be done to en-
lighten other Governments as to the true interests
of their people, and to urge them forward in the
same path, so much the better for all sides, and we
shall rejoice to find the grievances removed of
which such loud complaints have been made. The
question of the belligerent rights at sea has been put
upon a very anomalous footing since the famous
declaration at the Congress of Paris in 1856, which
in substance was to the effect that free ships make
free goods, and proposing to abolish privateering.
The first principle was always a favourite one with
America, for the probability of their being always
a neutral party in any European war gives them a
great advantage in the carrying trade when that
principle is acknowledged. They declined, however,
to concur in the abolition of privateering, unless we
go much further, and agree that all private property
shall I* exempt from war capture. By doing this
we shall be depriving ourselves of a powerful weapon
we can by no means consent to lose. The existing
state of things requires adjustment on a fair mutual
understanding, or else, as the Select Committee ob-

serves with regard to this point, " we must revert to
the maintenance of our ancient rights" by abroga-

ting the Declaration of Paris. Another grievance is
of an international character. It consists of the lia-
bilities of shipowners as carriers in case of accident
to property or life. In cases of collisions, where
the offending ship may be of a different flag to that
sustaining the injury, it is absolutely necessary
to establish a uniformity of principle on which the
damages should be assessed, to be recognised in the
courts of the respective countries, as well as to re-
move an injustice in the mode of estimating that
liability of which our own snip-owners very justly
complain. In this particular, as well as with re-
gard to those points we have previously indicated,
we shall be very glad to find that Mr. Lindsay may
be able to impress his views upon the authorities of
the United States so far as to lead to an adjustment
on terms of reciprocal justice.—Observer,