The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-02 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1858.

Dr. TRAVERS Twiss, the eminent civilian, has
given a very decided opinion on the case of the
Cagliari, which will be found in another part of
this day's impression. It is a clear and able
document, which must prove decisive not only on
the points at issue between the Sardinian and
Neapolitan Governments, but also in respect t 3
WATT and PARKS, who were illegally captured,
and therefore entitled to the protection of the
Governments both of Turin and of London. Of
the former from the fact of being sailing under its
flag, and of the latter from being natural-born
subjects of Queen VICTORIA, owing allegiance and
entitled to "protection" in return. The double claim
should be responded to by both nations, and we have
no doubt that it will be so, and that fair compca-
sation will be required on behalf of those who have
been so deeply injured—one of whom has already
suffered so severely that it is doubtful whether he
will ever recover hi 4 faculties, and the other has
almost succumbed under the terrible ordeal to
which he has been subjected.
Dr. Twos has left no point of the very com-
plicated case untouched. His opinion may be
regarded as a judgment, and that delivered with
the greatest impartiality. Nor can there be any
dispute as to the facts, for they have been taken
from Sicilian records, which are unquestionably
binding against King BoMms. and his agents. It
is admitted that the Cagliari was captured on the
high seas, which are "nullius territorium," where
no State can claim exclusive sovereignty, and the
rights of all must be respected. The municipal
laws of Naples could not therefore prevail, and
the authorities could not act, rations loci, against
either the vessel or any of its crew. A ship sail-
ing under a recognised flag, being practically
" an extension of the territory" to which that flag
belongs, and subject only to its laws, and to those
of the Maritime Code, binding on all without
txception.

The papers of the Cagliari were all right. No
exception could be taken thereto, and they
were exhibited without the slightest de-
lay captain.
to the Neapolitan The
Master "verified his flag," and consequently
the onus probandi devolved on those who inter-
rupted his lawful progress. There was no
culpability up to the time of leaving the
Piedmontese port, and there must, therefore,
have been something in " the mode of naviga-
tion" or conduct of those in charge of the vessel
that would constitute her either "a pirate or an
enemy" to justify the seizure.
As Doctor Twiss has distinctly pointed out, a
State may declare certain offences to be acts of
piracy—but those only binding on it* own
subjects, and cannot* in any degree affect the ins
gentian)", or universal law, by which every civi-
lised country is amenable. Pirates have been
properly defined as mariti(ins robbers," who are
actuated animo furandi, with -the deliberate in-
tention of plundering innocent parties. -Some-
thing like what BYRON described as " sea attor-
neys," who substituted might for right whenever
they could do so with impunity. Nothing of this
character could be, or has been, alleged against the
master or crew of the Cagliari. Their offence, if
any, could only be punished if they had volun-

tarily rendered themselves amenable to the juris-
diction of the Sicilian tribunals by either landing
on the coast or coming within its waters, and
being captured there. They could not be pur-
sued into neutral ground, or what to all intents
and purposes was Sardinian territory, viz., a vessel
sailing with regular papers on the high seas under
the Sardinian flag. _ _

„__
The Sovereign whose flag was violated—King
VICTOR EmuNtrEL—has demanded restitution of
the vessel and all onboard, and he is lawfully entitled
to obtain it, together with fair compensation for
the illegal act. The English Government has also
required the liberation of the British subjects on
board, and will insist on redress for their
grievances. Within a few weeks Lords DERBY
and MALMESBURY have established a proper issue,
vindicating the national honour and the right
cf their fellow subjects, while their predecessors
in office, Lords PALMERSTON and CLARENDON
bungled for more than nine months, and did not
produce even a "ridiculous mouse” from the
diplomatic parturition. We may hope that the
national prestige will now be maintained intact
from what we have seen with the Governments
of France, Piedmont, and Naples, and the pro-
tection afforded to Messrs. HoDGE, WATT, and
PARKS.

By the vote on Lord PALMERSTON'S Bill the
House of Commons sanctioned one principle only,
that of transferring the Home Government of India
from the Company to the Crown. Scarcely any
other point was earnestly debated than the trans-
ference. The general character of the Home Ad-
ministration of our Indian Empire seemed to be
taken for granted. By tacit consent some kind of
council there was to be. For a long time two
councils had bestridden the unlucky dependency,
one of course must ride before, but between them
both they contrived to ride it out of all its cash,
and eventually out of all its patience too. They
rode it, in short, into bankruptcy and mutiny. The
worst part of the mischief seemed apparent enough.
Two on one horse would no longer do, the double
government must go, and it went, with a pretty
heavy fall, on the 18th February last, by a majority
of almost two to one, the hindmost rider was pitched
to the ground ; it fell as Leaden-hall might be ex-
pected to fall.
But the House virtually accepted the long-
existing plan of a Council. India had always, so
far as the Home Administration was concerned,
been governed by a Council or Board, for they are
one and the same thing. The Company managed
its affairs by a Council ; and when PITT took the
corrupt and bankrupt Company in hand, he check-
mated it by a President and Council, matching its
own Chairman and Council with like for like ; he
might, on the part of the Crown, have opposed a
dictator to it, but this was not his plan. Boards
or Councils were the proper instruments for go-
verning India. No one seemed to think of any
other plan. And, whatever modifications were
made, still the requisite wisdom was sought not in
individual ability, but in the " multitude of coun-
sellors." We might have had, like the gloat Re-
public of old, two consuls, as it were, one at home
and the other abroad, and their instruction might
have been ne quid detrimenti, respublica caperet,
This course we never did take on any occasion,
and it became, therefore, an acknowledged prin-
ciple that we must have an India Thud, or a
Council with a President at its bead.

Now, we think that there is a great deal to be
said for precisely the opposite system—for select-
ing one Secretary for India, responsible to Pat L-
ament ; for leaving with him the nomination of his
subordinates, one or two of them, perhaps, having
seats in the House ; and for thus leaving him no
3oard or Council on whom to throw the leas.
responsibility. We believe that if the question
were fairly before us, that would be the mode of
Home Administration for India which must have
our vote. Tho troth, however, is, that no one
has yet been bold enough to propose this. Lord
PALMERSTON did not, any more than Lord ELLEN•
BOROUGH or Mr. DISRAELI. We should have had
a pretty hubbub indeed if the DERBY Government
had offered any such scheme to the House. No
one can doubt that Lard ELLENBOROUGH'S ten-
dencies are all in that direction. lie is not the
man to shirk responsibility, any more than was
his Radical military favourite. But he perfectly
well knew that he might as well offer no bill at
all to the eager Opposition, as one which, without
the time-sanctioned regulator, placed all power in
his hands. If, therefore, the House would like a
bill creating a responsible home dictator (if such a
combination of terms may be allowed) for India,
lot it but say so, and the present Government will
probably be ready enough to oblige them.
If, however, their feeling is all the other way,
what have they but details, suited for discussion
in committee, to complain of ? The proposers of
the bill, we imagine, are little concerned to defend
many of these pugnaciously. The limitations of
qualifications for councillors, we think, may well,
to a large extent, be dispensed with. Wo have
not so much faith in "old Indians" as in the
vigorous common sense of Englishmen unspoiled
by Indian routine, but all such questions belong to
a more advanced stage of the bill. As it now stands
the question lies between a council of eight and one
of eighteen ; a council half elected and a council
wholly nominated ; and a council partly elected by
constituencies whose relation to India is merely
commercial. Strange it i., indeed, that this last
innovation should have been the most attacked of
all. A little while ago the complaint was that
the holders of India stock had not half the inte-
rest in India that our great commercial and manu-
facturing towns have. Those commercial towns
are offered a voice in the management of India,
and forthwith all the quibblers are in arms against

the arrangement.
Why neutralise the votes of their Members of
Parliament ? says one. But their Members of Par-
liament are confessedly chosen not to aid in the
direot administration of Indian affaire, but merely
to watch over them for Imperial purposes. But
why should not a dozen other towns have votes'
also ? says another. Surely, however, it is enough
to select the first commercial towns in the king-
dom, for a function which could not by its very
nature be indefinitely extended. No one proposes
an Indian Parliament, but a Council. If, however,
any towns or cities felt it a grievance to be over.
looked, we do not know why they might not for
this purpose be united with some one of the five.

The truth is, the plan is novel ; it may therefore
be cavilled at ; but of all persons in the world,
Liberals ought to be the last persons in the world
to complain of Tories for giving power to the
people.

Several times of late we have taken eccasion to
refer to tl,e crcs:cctivo clnstruc'ion of a Grand
Trunk North American Railway, as an inevitable
consequence of the probable completion of the yet
grander scheme of the sub-oceanic intercourse
about to be established by means of the electric
telegraph. We have reiterated our allusions in
this way advisedly. The development appearing
to us to be so very near, and so all but absolutely
certain, we have purposely renewed more than
once our sufficiently significant comments upon
the growth of one great enterprize out of the

other—a growth instantly sequential, if circum-
stanoes preclude it from being actually simul-

;anew us.

The notion of traversiig the entire breadth of
the northernmost of the twin American continents
is not by any means a novelty to ourselves. It
is novr a good many years since we ventilated the
idea in the columns of The Sun and again, and
rat again, we have expatiated upon the enormous
and scarcely limitable advantages certain to accrue
to the Anglo-Saxon race by the resolute carrying
out of this magnifieent project upon the soil of our
own possessions. Conspicuous among those who
have insisted earnestly upon the practicability of
the undertaking have been two intelligent and
far-seeing observers—one an American, and one
an Englishman. Their names and their argu-
ments we have all this while held carefully in our
remembrance. Each, of course, as became him,
more particularly as a citizen inspired with senti-
ments of generous civiom, avowedly ambitioned
the securing of this grand boon to his respective
nation and Government. The American frankly
declared his hope to be the construction of the
proposed Trunk Railway across the United States,
rather than further northwards—through Canada
and the Hudson's Bay Company's possessions. The
Englishman, on the other hand, no less candidly
acknowledged his aspirations to be wholly in fa-
vour of the latter mode of realisation. Mr. ASA
WHITNEY, however, has long since waived his
plan in favourof that by which Major CARMICHAEL
SMITH proposed to open up to English euterprise
the latent resources of power and wealth, of com-
merce and agriculture, stored up in the prolific
fruitfulness of our North American territories. In
a remarkable letter recently addressed by the for-
mer gentleman to a morning contemporary, Mr.
ASA WHITNEY specifies four reasons for his ar-
riving reluctantly at this *conclusion. He says
distinctly—" for six years past, I have abandoned
all hope of its accomplishment across the territory
of the United States," adding the frank acknow-
ledgment, " it was the desire of my heart to see
my country control the commerce of the world, as
it no doubt could have done with this road com-
pleted as I proposed ; but that is all past, and
my country has lost its power over the great sub-
ject for ever, and it now rests with England to
accomplish what the United States have failed to
do." Mr. ASA WHITNEY'S four reasons for re-
garding the project as henceforth beyond the reach
of the United States are briefly-Ist., that the
means are no longer available ; 2dly, that the
work is too vast in its nature to be undertaken by
individual capital-3dly, that neither the Go-
vernment nor the Congress at Washington possess
the power to construct, operate, or carry on such
an enterprise ; 4thly, that the selection of
a route by arraigning one section against
the other would necessitate two rival
lines, which would be tantamount to a
certain failure of both. Wherefore, all things
considered, we regard the responsibility of laying
down the Grand Trunk Railway to have devolved
upon England. " And," here it is he writes
frankly, manfully, magnanimously, "as it is a
work in which I may say all mankind are deeply
interested, and, if accomplished, to be vastly be-
nefited, my desire to see its accomplishment is
unabated, and I hail with joy any proposition by
which I can see even a remote chance for the rea-
lisation of my fond hopes." Having said which,
he observes rio less frankly, manfully, magnani-
mously—" As to the route, the British side is far
the most favourable with lower gradients. From
Lake Superior
.to the Rocky Mountains range is
almost a level country—the ascent so gradual as
to be almost imperceptible ; and we: find that on
the range of the 50th parallel the streams divide,
running north on one side and south on the other;
and north of parallel 45 the Rocky Mountains
begin to slope off towards the Arctic Ocean, and
north of 50 deg. they do not elevate their peaks
above 5,000 feel, with manytpasses at very low
depression, practicable for a railway. Is not this,
then," he inquires, " the route for the commerce
between Asia and Europe 7" "Look," he con-
tinues, " at Halifax on one side, and Paget Sound,
directly opposite, on the other side. Has not na-
ture formed these for the termini of this great
highway ?" With ourselves there has not for a long
time been any doubt whatever upon this point. But
now to the aid of that deliberate conviction—a
conviction carried out logically after serious reflec-
tion and lengthened inquiry—comes the encour-
aging knowledgedthat, henceforth, in the develop-
ment of the enterprise, we shall find not jealous
rivals, but earnest sympathisers in the people of
the United States. Assurance is afforded by the
whole tone of Mr. ASA WHITNEY'S argument, that
all intelligent and sagacious Americans will here-
after be disposed to co-operate with us in forward-
ing the enterprise for the construction of this
Grand Trunk Railway—the heart of our own
North American Possessions.

CONFIRMATION OF TUB PRINCE OP
WALES.

(From the Court Circular.)
, WINDSOR, APRIL I

The confirmation of the Prince of Wales took place in
the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle this morning, his
Royal Highness having been examined on the previous
day by the Dean of Windsor, in the presence of her Ma-
jesty the Queen, his Royal Highness the Prince Consort,
and his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Archbishop Lf Canterbury, the Bishop of Oxford
(Lord High Almoner), the Bi-hop of Chester (C erk of
the Closet), the Dean of Windsor (Resident Chaplain to
the Queen), the Rev. Lord Wriothe,ley Russell (Chaplain
to the Prince Consort), and the Rev. H. J. Ellison (Vicar
of Windsor), took their seats within the rails of the
communion-table shortly before 12 o'clock.
The Ministers and other company invited to witness
the ceremony assembled in the Green Drawing-room at
a quarter before 12. The Ladies and Gentlemen in
Waiting on the Queen and the Royal family assembled
in the corridor. The company were then conducted to
their seats in the chapel.
About 12 o'clock her Majesty the Queen, his Royal
Highness the Prince Consort, his Royal Highness ;the
Prince of Wales, accompanied by her Royal Highness
the Duchess of Kent, her Royal Highness the Duchess
of Cambridge, her Royal Highness the Princess Alice,
his Royal Highness Prince Alfred, his R •yal Highness
Prince Arthur, her Royal Highness Princess Helena, her
Royal Highness Princes Louisa, her' Royal Highness
Princess Mary of Cambridge, and His Royal Highness
the Duke of Cambridge, entered the chapel.
The Queen and Prince Consort, with the members of
the Royal family, occupied chairs in the centre of the
chapel. The great officers of State and the Ladies and
Gentlemen in Waiting took their seats immediately
behind the Royal Family. Tae remainder of the com-
pany invited were placed in pews on either side of
the chapel.
The Prince Consort and the Duke of Cambridge
appeared in the Windsor uniform, and each wore the
ribaud, badge, and star of the most noble Order of the
Garter. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales also
appeared in the Windsor uniform.
The gentlemen of the choir of St, George's Chapel
attended, and Mr. W. G. Cosine Organist of her Ma-
jesty's Private Chapel) presided at the organ.
The ceremony commenced with Hymn 147---" Come
Holy Ghost, nur souls inspire."
The Bishop of Oxford read the preface, and his Grace
the Archbishop of Canterbury performed the ceremony,
and concluded the service with an exhortation.

The Hymn 268 —" Oh happy day, that first my choice,"
was then sung. _ _

The ceremony being ended, the Queen, the Prince
tc.ld tLe al 1,.L.,i4 and
entered the Green Drawing-room, where her Majesty
received the congratulations of the distinguished com-
pany present.

WESTERN DISPENSARY FOR DISEASES OF THE SKIN,
CHARLOTTE-STREET, FITZROY-SQUARE.—A legacy of 501.
has been recently loft to this useful institutio❑ by Mr.
Charles Worrell, late of Durham-terrace, Westbourue-
park.

tThe Senatus of the Edinburgh College have unani-
mously conferred the degree of LL.D. on Professor
Ferrier, St. Andrews; and the degree of D.D. on the
Rev. John Cairnu, of Golden.Lquare, U.P. Church,
Berwick-qn4weed.