The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-18 00:00:00

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

The President's Message—the substance of which
has been transmitted by telegraph from Galway—
fully confirms the anticipations which the public in
this country have been led to entertain respecting
the foreign policy of Mr. Buchanan's Administra-
tion. In the first place, we must observe that
nothing can be more natural than the feeling of
congratulation which the President expresses
on the subject of the abandonment of the right
of search by England. This object the Govern-
ment of the United States almost from the foun-
dation of the Republic has strenuously laboured to
accomplish, and feelings of maritime jealousy, and a'
general disinclination to act honestly and loyally
against the slave trade, have ever induced the
statesmen of America to declare that the police
of American. ships on the high seas should ex-
clusively be enforced by .means of the national
vessels of the Republic. To this cause is to be at-
tributed the failure of the negotiations at Ghent in
1815, and at Washington in 1846, on which occa-
sions disputes of great gravity (one of which had
actually provoked war) were settled, bUt not the
right of search—a matter with respect to which
America, having never made a concession, has now
achieved a complete though procrastinated triumph.
In the late Russian war England, acting in al-
liance with France, adopted the American rule of
" free ships, free goods;" and a brief period has
only elapsed since the important maritime decla-
ration annexed to the treaty of Paris—which an-
nounced several large and salutary mitigations of
the English prize code, as well as the abolition of
privateering by all the great Powers of Europe--
has been followe4 by the abandonment of a right
which never lawfully existed in peace • independ-
ently of treaty. The public jurisprudence of
Europe having in at least two important particu-
lars been moulded so as to meet the views of
America, Mr. Buchanan and his advisers might
gracefully :reciprocate the concession which Eng-
land has made by placing the odious and barba-
rous system of privateering under the ban of the
law, and by maintaining on the coast of Africa and
in the seas around Cuba squadrons sufficient to
prevent the American flag from being used, as it
now frequently is, to cover the most detestable and
iniquitous traffic that has ever afflicted and outraged
humanity.

The United States have at the present time upon
their hands a distant and expensive war. They
have fitted out a fleet for the purpose of coercing
the weak republic of Paraguay. Many persons
have thought that this fl( et was intended to stop
half-way—to call in at Central America, to enforce
American interests and influence in that uarter
of the world, or be ready to act against Mexico.
Mr. Buchanan, however, anticipates that the diffi-
culty with Paraguay may be settled without blood-
shed, " through the friendly offices of England and
France," an anticipation in which every person
must cordially concur. The condition of Mexico
next occupies the attention of the President. He
hopes " that the Liberal party will soon regain
power and establish a stable Government in the
Republic."' England, Spain, and the United
States have separately do demand redress for inju-
ries which have been inflicted upon their subjects
by the revolutionary chiefs who have attained the
temporary possession of power in Mexico Mr.
Buchanan believes that the difference with Spain
will speedily be adjusted, " as the present new
Minister of Spain has full power to settle all troubles
with Mexico." But if the United States citizens
should not be indemnified for the losses which they
have sustained, then Mr. Buchanan announces that
he is prepared to take military possession of a por-
tion of the Mexican territory, of course as a pre-
lude to that policy of formal annexation which is
so congenial to the great mass of the American
people. Cuba is claimed for the United States,
precisely in accordance with the spirit of the cele•
brated Ostend manifesto to which Mr. Buchanan
a few years ago set his hand. It is to be purchased
if Spain will barter away " the Queen of the An-
tilles"—the last relic of the mighty empire which
the most Catholic Crown once possessed in the
western hemisphere. This is the assertion of the
Monroe doctrine in its most lawless and offensive
form. Upon the same principle England might be
required to surrender her North American pro-
vinces ; but Spain is weak, except in the moral
support of Europe, which, we believe, would never
permit an act of such wholesale international rob-
bery to be perpetrated with successful impunity.
The Munroe doctrine is, we are told also, to be en-
forced in the negotiations which arc in progress in
Central America. The Monroe doctrine is practi-
cally a mere byword. It gratifies the self-love of
the American people to tell them that the power
of the Republic is destined to reach, at no distant
day, from the St. Lawrence to the mainland of
South America. But have the Powers of Europe
no voice in the matter ? Can it be a matter of
indifference to them that the most important
military and commercial position in the world
should fall under the exclusive control of the
United States ? The true policy of Mr. Buchanan
would be to build up the weak States which occupy
the isthmus, to place, the neutrality of the route
under the guarantee of the great commercial Powers
of the world, and not covet territories which can
only be more valuable to the United States than to
other countries, just as they afford facilities for the
extension of the desolating curse of slavery.
Upon the whole the Message is aggressive and
threatening in its character, so far as Cuba, Mexico,
and Central America are concerned. However, it
must be judged not by the standard of European
public opinion, but by the interests and feelings of
the people to whom it is more immediately ad-
dressed. Judged by this test, it conveys in reality
only a reassertion of that doctrine which Mr.
Monroe laid down in 1823—a doctrine which the
United States has never from that period to the
present succeeded in a single instance in enforcing
against the diplomacy or the protests of any Euro-
pean nation. Does Mr. Buchanan hope to coun-
teract possible disunion at home by a policy of law-
less aggression abroad.—Morning Post.

PROPOSED BANQUET TO LORD BROUGHAM IN-
EDINBuRait.—The invitation to Lord Brougham to accept
the hospitality of the citizens of Edinburgh at a public
dinner has been forwarded to his lordship, at Cannes, by
the Lord Provost. The signatures to the document in-
cluded those of the Lord Provost, bailies, and council, the
two members for the city, the Lord Advocate, the Dean of
Faculty, the Provost of Leith, the Meichant Company,
almost all the professors in the university, the rector of the
High School, the president of the Royal Scottish Academy,
and leading men in other professions. Caledonian
litereary. _ _

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