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

VILE -22-4,p,43cA A :VD OTHER CLAIMS.

Some papers are just published shewing the relations
between this country and the United States, and the pro-
gress of the negotiations between them since Mr. Motley's
arrival here. President Grant's Government furnish the
first despatch, and it is declared that his " sole object " in
renewing the correspondence is, to quote the words of Mr.
Hamilton Fish, the American Secretary of State, "to
state the position and maintain the attitude of the United
States in the various relations and aspects of this
grave controversy with Great Britain ;" and it is
expressly stated that " the United States now make no
demand against her Majesty's Government on account of
the injuries they feel they have sustained." Mr. Motley,
it appears, opened his relations with the Earl of Clarendon
by stating that his instructions were of a most amicable
character. It naturally devolved on him, as Mr. Reverdy
Johnson's successor, to explain why the Convention con-
cluded with that gentleman had not been ratified.
Accordingly he stated that that agreement was
unacceptable to all classes and parties in the
United States, because it was signed at an inop-
portune time ; President Johnson and his Govern-
ment were virtually out of office and their succes-
sors could not be consulted on the question ; because,
further, the Convention embraced only the claims of in-
dividuals, and had no reference to those of the two
Governments on each other; and lastly, because it settled
no question and laid down no principle. Mr. Motley pro-
ceeded to assign the excited state of feeling in the United
States as a reason why he wished to defer discussion on
the subject, and Lord Clarendon acquiesced, with an
intimation, however, that the settlement of the matter
was not one to be indefinitely postponed, so as to
leave a quarrel held in suspension which either party
might revive whenever it felt it convenient to do so for its
own interests. It is extremely satisfactory to be informed
on the best authority that the excitement and irritation
of feeling in the United States, which in June last was too
great to admit of the calm and sensible discussion of the
points in dispute between the two countries, had passed
away four months afterwards. In October Mrsillotley
sent to the Earl of Clarendon a long and important des-
patch, which is the exposition of President Grant's
views of the controversy between his Government
and that of this country. Mr. Fish takes up,
with a cheerful eagerness, the whole story of
American wrongs, as he says, " from the very beginning,"
as Mr. Adams, and Mr. Seward, and Mr. Johnson had
written nothing before him. He draws a glowing picture
of the felicitous relations which existed between Great
Britain and the United States in the year 1860, as if
General Harney and the San Juan difficulty had never
existed, and as if Mr. Crampton had never been sent away
with indignity from Washington. The object of Secretary
Fish in drawing this fair picture soon becomes apparent; he
wanted a bright ground on which to exhibit a dark spot.
The United States, confiding in the amicable sentiments
of the British Government, " could not anticipate hostility
towards it and special friendship for the insurgents of the
acceding States," nevertheless this, according to Mr. Fish,
is what it had to encounter. The objects of the Southern
insurrection were the secure establishment of a per-
petual and exclusive slave-holding Republic. "In such
a contest the Government of the United States was
entitled to expect the earnest good-will, sympathy,
and moral support of Great Britain. It was with
painful astonishment, therefore, that the United States
Government received information of the issue by her
Majesty's Government, on the 13th of May, 1861, of a
Proclamation which in effect recognised the insurgents as
a belligerent Power, and raised them to the same level
of neutral right with the United States." Lord
Clarendon remarks, in reply, that the States which
had seceded from the Union, containing a popu-
lation of several millions had established a de
facto Government, with a President, Congress, Constitu-
tion, Courts of Justice, Army, and all the machinery of
military and civil power, and possessed the ports along
upwards of 2,000 miles of coast. "With the exception of
Forts Pickens and Munroe, all the Federal posts and forts
had been evacuated, including Harper's Ferry, the arsenal
of the Potomac valley. Fort Sumter, the only one which
had offered resistance, had fallen a month previously,
April 13. The Confederate troops were in occupation
of the Shenandoah lines, and threatening Washington.
The Confederate President had declared war, and called
for a levy of 32,000 troops, to which all the seceded States
had responded promptly. On the other hand, the Federal
President called for 75,000 volunteers on the 15th of
April, and for 42,000 more on the 3rd of May, and as fast
as the regiments could be armed they were hurrying
to the defence of Washington. The contending
armies were, indeed, face to face. The operations at sea
in which British interests were more directly affected, had
been carried on with equal vigour. On the 17th of April
the Confederate President issued his proclamation offering
to grant letters of marque, which was followed, two days
afterwards, by the Federal proclamation of blockade
At the date of the Queen's proclamation of
neutrality both these hail been carried, or were
being carried into effect. The Federal Government had
instituted the blockade of Virginia and North Carolina,
which was declared to be effective on the 30th of April,
and were rapidly despatching all the merchant vessels
which they could procure, end which they were able to
convert into ships of war, to the blockade of the other
ports. The General Parkhill, of Liverpool, was
captured by the United States ship Niagara, while
attempting to run the blockade of Charlestown, on
the 12th of May ; and the British vessels Ililja
and Monmouth warned off on the same day. Con-
federate privateers were already at sea. One was captured
at the mouth of the Chesapeake River, on the Bth of May,
by the United States ship Harriet Lane. On the 15th'
the Federal barque Ocean Eagle, of Rockhead, Maine, was
taken by the Confederate privateer Calhoun, off New
Orleans. At the same port Captain Semmes had already
received his commission, and was engaged in the outfit of
the Sumter?' Only one name can be given to such a state
of things, and that name is " War." If ever there
was war between two formidable Powers it was when the
Queen issued this much decried proclamation of belli-
gerency. Mr. Fish's despatch next treats of the departure
of Confederate cruisers from British ports, of supplies
furnished to the Confederates by British subjects, and
of the indirect injury done to American com-
merce in consequence of such a state of things.
To all complaints coming under these heads
we have replies which have been returned again
and again. Having consented to an arrangement which
was satisfactory to one Government at Washington, we
might reasonably have expected that the Government
which has succeeded it should point out what it wants
beyond that which had already been conceded ; it is,
therefore, most unsatisfactory to find that as often as Mr.
Fish mentions topic after topic on which either tangible
claims should be made, or none at all, we immc
d lately read that " the President is not now
prepared to speak of the reparation which he
thinks due by the British Government for the
larger account of the vast national injuries it has
inflicted on the United States "—and so on. We receive,
however, the assurance that " when the time for action
shall come, the President will consider with sincere and
earnest desire that all differences between the two nations
may be adjusted amicably and compatibly with the honour
of each, and to the promotion of future concord between
them." To the invitation with which Mr. Fish's letter
concludes that the Queen's Government shall present
some new proposition for acceptance or rejection, Lord
Chlrendon has returned :—" It is obvious—and Mr. Fish
will probably on reflection admit—that her Majesty's
Government
cannot make any new proposition, or run the
risk of another unsuccessful negotiation, until they have
information. more clear than that which is contained in
Mr. Fish's despatch respecting the basis upon which the
Government of the United States would be disposed to
negotiate."

NOVEL PRESENT TO THE QUEEN.—The carg
of the mail steamer Norseman, which arrived from the
Cape of Good Hope on Tuesday, included a handsome tiger
n present to Queen Victoria from the Basuto paramount
Chief Moshesh, and a box of diamonds value £2,000.
" THE MURDER OUT."—A. gentleman who had
carefully trained his servant sent him with a box-ticket
for the theatre to a young lady. The servant returned
when the gentleman and his wife were at dinner. He had
been told in giving answers to certain questions to substi•
tute the masculine for the feminine pronoun. "Did you
see him ?" said the gentleman, giving him the one. "Yes,
sir, he said he'd wait for you." " What was he doing? "
asked his wife, carelessly. "He was putting up his back
hai-," was the reply.

SCENE AT THE CEc umENICA T. Co LI-NCI L.—
According to a correspondent of the _Yew Free Press, of
Vienna a scene of an extraordinary character has already
occurred in the Council. In one of the sittings a Croatian
bishop rose to propose that the paragraph in the articles
as to the dispatch of business, imposed by the Pope,
svhich renders it necessary for every resolution to be
submitted to a special commission before it can
be discussed by the Council, should be simply
struck out. He brought forward several weighty
arguments in support of his motion, but as soon
as he began to warm with his speech Cardinal de Luca,
who presided, interrupted him, and on his continuing his
address, rang the bell violently. Cardinal Simor, the
Primate of Hungary, rose to support his South Slavonian
colleague, but he too was silenced by the cardinal's bell.
On seeing this, Msgnr. Dupanloup, the Bishop of Orleans,
seized his hat in great angar and left the hall, followed
by several of his countryman. The fact that three nations
were :concerned in the matter has made au unpleaept
impreasion on the Vatican.