The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-30 00:00:00

SURR END isR OF OUR 111 A R 1 T ME
RIGHTS.

(From the.ilforning Herald of this day.)
It was with DO ordinary feelings of shame and indignation
that we yesterday published the deliberate cession of 000
maritime rights which England has from time immemorial
mantained.

The annex to Protocol N. 23 contains the following decla-
ration :

" The plenipotentiaries having come to an agreement, barn
adopted the following solemn declaration :
" The neutral flag covers enemy's good, with the exception
of contraband of war.

" Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war,
are not liable to capture under the enemy's flag."
Without comment we proceed to show that this is the
abandonment of a principle which England has heretofore
defended as inviolable, and to which she owes her maritime
greatness,

- In 1745 Frederick the Second attempted to resist the PaY;
ment of the Silesian indemnity on the grounds that We had
injured Prussia by seizing belligerent property in her bottonisi
not by infraction of any treaty with Prussia, but of a natural
right. Upon the showing of the law officers of the Crowe,
and the judges, the claim was resisted, and the indemnity
was pad.
In 17S0 we were at war with France and Spain and With
our own colonies. Russia seized the moment to propose s
new system of neutral trade. The Russian treaty of the
armed neutrality contained the clause that " The effects of
warring powers shall be free in neutral vessels," Spelt',
Sweden, Prussia, France, and Denmark joined this treaty
Mr. Fox, unknown to his colleagues, sent a secret instrile-
tion to the British ambassador at St. Petersburgh to make e
private offer to the Empress of Russia to abandon this right
of seizure. He was not, however, strong enough to Pit
down the law. England made no concession, She shoaled'
in a series of notes addressed to Sweden and Denmark, that
she wished not to infringe on any right they hid, but tbet
she wouid not and could not submit to intimidation. She
continued to seize enemies' goods, in spite of-the armed Ilea"
trality, and the result was the total destruction of the power
of all those who had banded together, and the annulling, bf
every one of them, of the principle they had put forth.
In 1800 there was a second armed neutrality. The foliose
ing are the despatches of two British Ministers on the °ace'
sion of this right of search and seizure being resisted by Dell.
mark. •

Mr. Mercy, British Minister at Copenhagen, writes to Coal
Bernstoff in ISOO

" The right of visiting and examining in the open sea Iner
chant vessels, of whatever nation or whatever may be their
destination, is regarded by the British Government as the in'
contestable right of every nation at war—a right which i°
founded on the law of nations, and which has been generallf
admitted and acknowledged."

Lord Whitworth, who was sent as a special envoy on the
same occasion, wrote to the same Minister :
" The right claimed by the King is the necessary result of
the state of war. If the principle is once admitted that A
Danish frigate can legally guarantee from search six merchant
vessels of that nation, it follows naturally that this sone\
power—that any other power—can by means of the smallest'
ship of war extend the same pretectiou over all the enemy'o
commerce. All that is required is to find in the civilised
world some one neutral state, however insignificant, suffi-
ciently friendly to our enemies to he willing to lend her flag
to cover their commerce without herself encountering any
risk ; for once the power of seareh is taken away, fraud whi
no longer fear discovery."

The consequences of the second armed neutrality were the
same as the first. England maintained her rights ; the WO
put an end !o, and in the treaty of Amiens, which followed,
there were no pretensions put forward that the flag should
corer goods.
In the treaty signed with Russia after the assassination of
the Emperor Paul it is stipulated, that goods on board neu-
tral vessels shall he free, with the exception of contraband of
war and enemies' property."
When France and Russia coalesced in 1807 the matter was
again put forward, The English Government made the fel•
lowing declaration :

" His Majesty proclaims anew those principles of maritime
law against which the armed neutrality under the auspices of
the Emixess Catherine was originally directed, and against
which the present hostilities of Russia are denounced. Those
principles have been recognised and acted on in the best
periods of the history of Europe, and acted upon by no power
with more strictness and severity than Russia herrielf in the
reign of the Empress Catherine.

" Those principles it is the right and duty of his majestf
to maintain against every confederacy. his Majeaty, under
the blessing of Pr.,vidence, is determined to maintain theta.
They have at all times contributed essentially to the support
of the maritime power of Great Britain."

The English Government in 1812 thus describes the de•
mand as put forward by France :

" The enemy requires that we should recognise as a prin•
ciple that the goods of an enemy under a neutral flag should
he treated as neutral goods. By these demands the enemy
requires that Great Britain, and all civilised nations, shall ati
his pleasure renounce the natural and incontestable rights of
Aar ; th t Great Britain iu particular shall surrender all the
advantages of her naval superiority."
In the admission of this right the United States have con•
cniTed ; it is laid doWn by their principal law authority,
Judge Storey, that " though it had sometimes been resisted
it was an acknowledged part of the law of nations."
Jefferson writes, " I believe it cannot be doubted that by
the general law of nations the goods of an enemy found in
the vessels of a friend are good prize."
Nelson said of this right that England should maintain it
while she had a ship, a man, or a shilling.
Sir William Scott thus declares the law :

" The right of visiting and searching merchant ships upon
the high seas, whatever be the ships, whatever be the cal
goes, whatever be the destination, is an incont:stablc right
of the lawfully commissioned cruisers of all belligerent
nations,"

This right, so incontestable in law, up to 1854 so invariablle
in practice ; this right which England has maintained tri-
umphantly against the banded navies in the world ; this right,
which is an integral part of her very existence, Lord Claron•
don has by a stroke of his pen abrogated and effaced, and the
hand of an English minister has filched from us that trident
which Russia, France, Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia could
not wrench frog our grasp.
There is but one term to apply to this destruction of a fun-
damental law of England without consultation with and con•
sent of the three estates of the realm.

STATE OF TRADE.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

MANCHESTER, APRIL 29.
Business has been very quiet to-day ; both spinners and
manufacturers have met with very little support, and prices,
though generally firm, iu consequence of previous engage.
ments, have been in favour of buyers.
We are enabled to report that trade generally, in all de-
partments of manufacture, maintains a steady position, whilst
the anticipations of future prosperity are founded on most
satisfactory evidence: The recent impulse in the Liverpool
market Las not altogether been caused by mere specula-
tion, but may he attributed in a very large degree
to lona fide transactions of purchasers for the trade,
in the full expectation that a sound and healthy business N
rapidly approaching. Speculation has don' tress been actively
engaged in the past excitement, but whilst this spirit has
been at work the claims of business have not altogether been
overlooked, and a quick and intelligent eye has constantly
bees kept on the steady increase in the demand, and the
prospect which presents itself all around of an increasing eon-
gumption.

These orders are eleaey recognised by most practical men,
and the Prices Current of Messrs. George Fraser and Son, of
this city, abundantly coefirm them. "At home," it is re-
marked, " the condition o the masses of the people continue
to improve. Employment is active, and food, though far
from cheap, has for s imemonths past gradually been declining
in value, whilst wages keep high or tending upwards. Abroad
the same features exibt. All over the continent of Europe, where
from the effect of emigration and of increased employment, in
various ways arising, for the populations of the leading States,
the value of labour has risen some 15 or 10 per cent, and up-
wards during the last year oe two. India constantly becomes
a larger market ; China has resumed extensive purchases ;
and the United States' markets have taken off very largely
increased quantities of our manufactures. Thus there ha.s
been an increasing emisnmptien, but it has been by the in.-
crease of stocks in middle hands that we may probably ac—
count chiefly for the largely-inereased demand experienced in
our market for several months past. When the war broke
out, and the future became so threatening, there was a dispo-
sition everywhere manifested to reduce stocks to the lowest
working point, and we had occasion from time to time te ex-
press our belief that no diminution existed in the consump-
tion tantamount to the decrease experienced in the demand
from the summer of 1854 to the spring of last year, whic h
resulted in a great decline in our prices. The reverse of tleis
action has latterly been taking place, from the removal of
those causes which led to the reduction of middle stocks ;
for, looking at the large consumption which took place durix g
the latter six or eight months of 1855, by which our marks t
was gradually cleared of the stocks which had previously (le-
Pressed pi ices, and the values of goods were equalised, and
this in the face of extremely dear money, and whilst also the
expectation was general that at least another year of war
might be looked for, it was immediately felt on the announce-
ment of a probable peace that the futuee course of prices must bo
upwards, that the time had come for rep acing middle stocks
on their usual extensive footing. It will only be when this
has fully taken place that the actual improvement in the ceen-
sumptiou can fairly be estimated, and iu the meantime prices
may attain, or have already attained, a position in excess of
that at which they will ultimately continue. The advance
which has already taken place in prices has considerably par-
tailed the demand during the last ton days ; but spinners and
manufacturers remain very firm at their quotations, from the
absence of stocks, and the advancing state of the cotton
market."

It may be mentioned that, notwithstanding the genoredly
satisfactory state of the staple trade of Manchester, pecunhiry
difficulties have been experienced by a few manufacturers a:ad
others, and some of these are at present working under In-
spection : but in no case of large extent has there been Nuc;ll
a state of affairs as to cause much loss, or to endanger the in-
terests of the working people. In .a district abounding with
large concerns, and employing so great a number of hands, it
is matter of surprise and congratulation that the opera tions
of trade have been maintained so steadily, and with so zmall
an amount of injury from failures or partial stoppages. The
merchant class have passed through the war ordeal most
lantly ; and proof has thereby been given of the prudeuei of
their business conduct, and the caution and skill exereise4l is
their transactions.

A meeting of Spanish certificate holders took place
yesterday, Sir J. Fitzgerald, M,P., presiding, wheal a
series of resolutions were agreed to, organising a new
committee to prosecute their claims both in Madri d and
in this country. The several speakers adverted to the
improved condition of the revenue of Spain and to the
neglect which has been exhibited by successiv e Ad-
ministrations in not providing for these securities.
PRICE OF GOLD.—The quotation of gold at Palls is
about 5 per mide premium (according to the last tariff),
which, at the English Mint price of 31. 17s. 101 ct, per
oz. for standard gold., gives an exchange of 25:293 ; and,
the exchange at Paris on London at short being 25. 371,
it follows that gold is about 0.32 per cent. dearer in Lun•
don than in Paris.. By ad vices from Hamburg the 7 once
of gold is 4261 per mark, which, at the English 21 Vlint
price of 3/. 17s. 100. per oz. for standard gold, give s an
exchange of 13.5 k ; and, the exchange at Hamburg on
London at short being 13.7, it follows that gold is 0 64
per cent, dearer in London than in Hamburg. 1 The
course of exchange at New Yerk on London for bill:. at
60 days' eight is 1091 per cent., and, the par of exchang
nttween England and America being 109 23.40 per cent.. ,
it follows that the exchange is nominally 0.08 per cent.
against England ; but, after making allowance for
charges of transport and difference of interest, the pre-
sent rate leaves no profit on the transmission of gold
either way between the two countries.