The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
MR. FISH'S DESPATCH.
The Time.', in referring to thenewly-publishedcprrespoa-
donee on the Alabama claims, thinks that one peculiarly
American mistake pervades the whole of Mr. Fish's de-
spatch. It breathes a profound belief that Great Britain
was bound to apply altogether different principles in its
American policy from those it would assert in its rela-
tions with other nations. He complains that our Govern-
ment in declaring its neutrality looked to the mere
fact that there were two great armed bodies in a
country bordering on its own dominions conflicting
with each other. The natural result, in such a state
of things would be for the neighbouring Power to desire
to maintain a neutral position. If it could not hinder its
subjects from trafficking with the one side, it ought not to
have attempted to hinder them from lending the same aid
to the other. Mr. Fish's view is that we should have
allowed the Clyde and the Mersey, Sheffield and Birming-
ham, to trade in ships and rifles as they pleased with the
Northern States of the Union; but he considers that the
Government should have prosecuted to the utmost rigour
of the existing law, and made new laws for the sake of
prosecuting more rigidly, all Englishmen dealing with
customers from the Southern States. He forgets that
many Englishmen entertained for America, all the kindliness
he would claim for his country at the hands of this coun-
try, but that their predilections were for tha party in
American politics which is not Mr. Fish's party. If the
United States' Government could not prevent a third of
its people from seceding from the rest, it is scarcely strange
that the British Government should not have been able to
repress all Confederate partisanship among its subjects.
Mr. Fish forgets, still further, when he expresses such
indignation at the failure of the British Government to
insist on all its subjects being as neutral as itself, that a
state of w,,r is always a heavy burden on neutrality, and
that never has a war been a more grievous calamity to a
neutral State than the War of Secession was to England.

AN AMERICAN STATFSMAN.

The Post observes that the announcement of the death
of Mr. Stanton once more brings vividly before our eyes
one of the most prominent actors in the great American
civil war. Trained to the bar, he accepted the post of
Attorney-General on the eve of President Lincoln's elec-
tion, but scarcely more than a year afterwards he quitted
the legal profession to preside over the War Department
of the Federal Government. This was in the early
part of 1862. The Confederacy was as yet
unpenetratcd in any direction. The hills and
valleys between the Potomac and the Chickahominy had
witnessed more than one campaign utterly fruitless of
results to ')e attacking forces. Generals bad been super-
seded again and again, in vain endeavours to discover some
second Napoleon, when the leader of the American Bar was
translated to the War office. The experiment was full of
risk, but it turned out more successful than those who
made it had a right to expect. Entering heart and
soul into the duties which devolved on him, and
deeply imbued with the righteousness of the
object which the war bad ostensibly in view—
the abolition of slavery Mr. Stanton compensated
for his inexperience by his zeal and his administrative
talent. If three years were still destined to elapse before
the Federal arms were declared victorious—if many of the
acts of the War Department manifested vacillation and
caprice—if money was squandered by the Administration
in the conduct of the war with. the same recklessness as
lives were sacrificed by those to whom the armies of the
Republic were entrusted, at least Mr. Stanton is entitled
to such credit as attaches to ultimate success, and he
might perhaps be justified in maintaining that no one else
in his position, with the same materials could have done
better,