The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-11 00:00:00

NATAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

The Lords Commissioners ofithe Admiralty have
been pleased to appoint Captain William H. Ken-
nedy as additional captain to the Pembroke, and
deputy comptroller general of coast-guard.
The following General Order, in reference to the
gallant conduct of the officers and men of the 54th
Regiment when on board the Sarah Sands steam-
ship, on the occasion of the partial destruction of
that ship by fire on the 11th of November last, has
just been issued from the Horse-Guards :
"Horse-Guards.
" His Royal Highness the General Commanding-
in-Chief has great gratification in making known
to the army the substance of a report received from
Major-General Breton, commanding the troops at
the Mauritius, recording the remarkable gallantry
and resolution displayed by the officers and soldiers
of the 54th Regiment on board the ship Sarah
Sands, on the 11th of November, 1857, under cir-
cumstances of a most trying nature ; namely, when
that vessel took fire at sea, having at the time a
large quantity of ammunition on board.
"It is under such emergency that presence of
mind, high courage, and coolness—qualities which
are the attributes of British soldiers—are conspicu-
ous, and are rendered particularly so when attended
by the maintenance of that discipline which was
evidently observed oa the occasion.
" Major-General Breton states in his report that
the first consideration acted upon was to throw the
powder overboard—a most hazardous and danger-
ous duty, which was effected (with the exception of
a very trifling portion of it) by volunteers at the
risk of their being suffocated by the smoke below.
" The boats were got ready, the women and
children placed in them, and the greatest degree of
emulation evinced by the officers and men in the
performance of all that could be required of them.
, For the lengthened period of 16 or 18 hours
the ship was in extreme peril, until the fire was
subdued and the hold cleared of water, which was
thrown in for the purpose of extinguishing it, or
which had rushed in through the opening in the
stern caused by the explosion of the last of the

powder.
" The following non-commissioned officers and
privates are specially named by Major Butt (upon
whom the command devolved) as having particu-
larly distinguished themselves on the occasion :
"Sergeants.—Robinson, Page, Doyle, and
Houston.
"Privates.—Warren, Doyle, Hopkins, Fitz-
patrick, Dodd, Gallagher, Wiles, Walsh, olland,
Glenny, Lamb, Carmichael, Folland, Hall, Buck-
ingham, Denton, Canavan, and Byrnes.
" Lance-Corporals.—Westby, Stevenson, M'Cal-
lum.
" The colours of the regiment appear to have
been saved by Private W. Wile, 54th Regiment,
and Richard Richmond, one of the Quartermasters
of the ship, at the hazard of their lives.
"Major Butt exerted himself to the almost,
and is entitled to the highest praise for his conduct
throughout.
" He reports of the officers generally that their
conduct was admirable, and gives great credit to
Captain Gillum, Lieutenant and Adjutant Hous-
ton, and Lieutenant Hughes.
"By extraordinary exertions the ship was saved
from destruction and enabled to reach Port Louis.
" His Royal Highness is pleased to observe that
the behaviour of the 54th Regiment during the

course of this distressing occurrence was most
praiseworthy, and, by its results, must render
manifest to all the advantages of subordination and
strict obedience to orders under the most alarming
and dangerous circumstances in which soldiers can
ba placed.
" By order of his Royal Highness the General
Commanding-in-Chief.
" G. A. WETHERALL, Adjutant-General."
Several cases of smallpox and scarlet fever have
lately broken out among the troops quartered in
the south wing of Brompton Barracks, lately con-
verted into a hospital for the sick and wounded
troops from India. The barracks at Brompton
are in a very crowded state, which renders it the
more desirable that prompt measures should be
immediately taken to remove the men of the
Royal Engineers, either to Plymouth or Wool-
wich, to prevent the contagion spreading
among the troops. Immediately the smallpox
and fever made their appearance Col. Sandham and
the medical officera devised all possible precautionary
measures to prevent the spread of disease, which,
there are many reasons for believing, are mainly to
be attributed to the overcrowding of the troops in
the barrack-rooms ; and as soon as the symptoms of
a case are observed the patient is instantly removed
to the garrison hospital for treatment.
Yesterday reinforcements to the number of up-

wards of 50ö men of all ranks left Chatham garrison
for the purpose of embarking for Kurrachee to join
the service companies of their respective regiments
in India :-7th Royal Fusiliers, 55 men ; 27th
Enniskiliens, 41 ; 62d Light Infantry, 28 ; 61st
Regiment, 23 • 70th Regiment, 8 ; and 94th Re-
giment, 30, under the command of Capt. Jackson,
70th Regiment, with Ensign Cobbe, 27th Regiment;
and Ensign Nugent, 61st Regt. The whole of the
above detachments, together with 3 officers and 53
men of the 7th Dragoon Guards, 12 meu of the 87th
Royal Irish Fusiliers, and 30 men of the 98th, who

arrived at Chatham from Canterbury, proceeded to
Southampton, and embarked on board the Peninsu-
lar and Oriental Company's new steamer Malabar,
1,080 tons burthen, for Alexandria, whence they
proceed by the overland route to Kurrachee. The
following drafts embarked yesterday in the Ante-
lope steamer for Kurrachee, vis.-61. men of the 7th
Royal Fusileers, 16 of the 52d Light Infantry, 29
of the 61st Regiment, 13 of the 73th Regiment, 10 of
the 81st Regiment, 17 of the 94th Regiment, and 30
of the 98th Regiment—the whole under the com-
mand of Major A. Ormsby, 80th Regiment ; Lieut.
R. Swift, 81st Regiment, Ensign C. M. Prender-
gast, 52d Light Infantry, Ensign M. Murphy, Gist
Regiment, and Ensign P. H. _Dobbs, 98th Regt.
Reinforcements for tbie 43d Light Infantry will
leave Chatham this day, and embark at Gravesend
on board the T weedaide for Madras.
Letters from India, received by the last mail,
inform us that the European and American
Company's steamship Lady Jocelyn, Captain Bird,
which took out troops to India, arrived at Galls on
her way back to England with passengers and cargo
on the sth of February, and after coaling was to
leave on the 7th. Captain Brow; Commander of
the Hydaspes steamer, belonging to the same com-
pany, had been presented by the officers of the
Royal Artillery who went out in his vessel to Cal-
cutta with a silver salver, accompanied by a very
handsomo note from Lieut.-Colonel C. J. B. Rill
dell, in which he thus expresses the feelings of
himself and brother officers :
" We shall all have the recollection of a pleasant
voyage of the Hydaspes, in which nothing was left
undone on your part to promote the comfort of the
officers and men on board and make their voyage
pass as pleasantly as possible."
The salver bore a suitable inscription, with the
names and ranks of all the officers.

Her Majesty's steam troopship Urgent, 6, Com-
mander Macdonald, arrived at Spithead yesterday
from Malta with Ordnance stores and the wives and
children of the men of the 71st Regiment. She will
take in the remainder of the 2d battalion of the 2d
Royals at Portsmouth in a few days, and return to
Malta, whether the head-quarters have already
proceeded.

To-day the depot of the 79th Highlanders wir
remove from Dundee to Stirling, Captain Haria.
son in command.

To-morrow the depot of the 42d Royal High
landers will remove from Dundee to Perth, Capt.
Webber in command.

The Russell, 60 guns, screw steamship, Captain
Henry A. Storey, saluted the flag of the Comman-
der-in-Chief yesterday, at 2 p.m., at Sheerness, and
left under steam for Plymouth, and thenc3 to Fal-
mouth for Coastguard service there.
The Southampton, 50-gun ship, Capt. Edward P.
Charlewood, from Harwich, remains moored over
on the west shore at Sheerness. No fresh cases of
fever have occurred since the 24th ult.
An Admiralty order has arrived at Sheerness,
staying the fitment of ships for the Channel station.
The steam transport Dee having undergone con-
siderable repairs at Woolwich in the engineer
and sh:pwrielts departments, and having been sup-
plied with new bulwarks, sponsions, &e., com.
menced shipping steam gear yesterday morning for
ships under construction in the western yards. The
Dee has been refitted with the superheating steam-
pipes, and is under orders to make a trial of the
ordinary steam during her approaching voyage to
the west, to be mixed with that supplied by the
patent superheating apparatus.
The freight ship Glentilt is moored off Woolwich
arsenal, and has commenced shipping guns and
department,atTozhea
ffrroemi ghwti
sosohui
military stores for Bermuda.
iwnpideJehrafnooerr,
orders
en up by the War
Helena.
Colonel ark military
ne..oalpoonse.tl_otrohwan having recovered from his late
1,:::.11:: lin .:,
or
Es, :
be resumed 1
tmilelnthati:
of
fudties as Comman-
dant
sx.____t the
—Trt tla Taal Li i c t Marinesl-oar:
ila at
r lyt e Woolwich,have
ec
different
consideration of th
igcstoanthael at
the
to the drill-serjes.ntssl
ituiotnanar
6314
riroo2rtsieoeprierpldEaaysehd
appoint 1".
been
battalion,
Made Tester-
a ltfo-
The following- nate increase
day at the Admiralty is were I
Berijamin D. Connor, second m ~t,,, i.,_
Renown ;J. F. Burns, C. Bayfield, \-&E_' timer
and G. P. Roberts, master's-assistants, to the
Impregnable,

ME CASE Off THE CAGLIARI.

The following is the substance of an opinion de-
livered on this subject by Dr. Phillimore
" At the outset I would observe thatthere are two
facts the importance of the bearing of which upon
the law cannot be over-estimated, and which are
not controverted by the Government of the Two
Sicilies 1. That the Cagliari was captured not in
Neapolitan waters, but upon the high seas. 2.
That in the first instance it was nevertheless repre-
sented by the Sicilian to the Sardinian Government
that the Cagliari had been captured within the Nea-
politan waters and that the truth upon this sub-
ject was not discovered by the Sardinian Govern-
ment until they saw the evidence of the captors.
Upon this state of facts the question which imme-
diately arises is, under what circumstances is a State
justified in seizing the ship of another State while
passing on the common highway of all nations 3 The
answer is one upon which all jurists are agreed, and
as to which the practice and theory of States have
hitherto been in perfect harmony, viz.—in time of
peace, when the vessel is, or is reasonably suspected
to be a pirate ; in time of war, when a ship is, or
is reasonably suspected to be the property of a bel-
ligerent, or to be engaged in furthering the purposes
of a belligerent. To deal first with the question of
the capture of a piratical vessel in time of peace. As
to the definition and characteristics of a pirate there
is no material difference either in the opinion of
jurists or in the municipal law of States. In sub-
stance a piratical vessel is one sailing without the
authority of any recognised State, not entitled to
carry a flag or ship's papers, the universally ac-
knowledged evidence of such authority, and, more-
over, so sailing aninzo furandi et depredandi. The
next inquiry is, does the Cagliari fall under this de.
finition, and if so, at what period ? No process of
reasoning, no number of printed folios, no accumu-
lation of pointless erudition, can bring the Cagliari,
at the time when she left Genoa, under the terms
of this definition. She was a Sardinian vessel
carrying a Sardinian flag, furnished with papers
abundantly sufficient to satisfy the requisitions of
international, and also it should seem of Sardinian
law. She was ,prosecuting her usual voyage upon
her usual track ; she was, in fine, a well-known
Sardinian postal and passenger steamer. There is
not an iota of evidence to connect the proprietors of
the vessel with any intention of navigating their
vessel for an improper or unlawful purpose. The
next inquiry is :—Though the Cagliari left Genoa
an innocent merchantvessel, had a piratical charac-
ter, despitethe wishes of the owner, been impressed
upon her during the course of her voyage ? and if
so, under what circumstances ? The facts appear
to be simply these :—A considerable number of
armed conspirators, who had embarked under the
guise of lawful passengers, did, after the vessel was
at sea, by acts of violence and threats of murdee,
compel or terrify, it matters not which, the captain
into abdicating his authority, possessed themselves
of the entire control of the vessel, took her to
Ponza,, filled her with additional conspirators, and,
changing her destination, made for Sapri. There
the conspirators had disembarked, the captain re-
gained his command, and immediately left Sapri
with the intention of proceeding to Naples, and of
reporting what bad happened to the Government
there. While prosecuting this voyage, and at no
great distance from his destination, he is fired at by
a Sicilian ship of war, ordered to bring to, and
immediately obeying without resistance is
taken into Naples. Was, then, the Cagliari
at the time of her capture piratically employed ?—I
say unquestionably not. The assertion to the con-
trary rests upon a suspicion—unsupported, as far
as 1 can find, either by oral or documentary evi-
dence—that she was returning to Ponza for the
purpose of bringing fresh conspirators to Sapri.
But against this vague suspicion are to be set the
oath of the captain, the proved fact of the previous
violence which he had undergone, and from which
he had just escaped, the consistency of his whole
story, and the previous history and character of the
commercial vessel which he commanded. Let it be
admitted for the sake of argument (though the
question is one which was recently much contro-
verted between Great Britain and the United States
of North America) that under the circumstances
the Sicilian ship of war had a right to visit (a right,
be it observed, distinct from the right of search)
upon the high seas the Cagliari in time of peace, for
the purpose, and for the purpose only, of ascertain-
ing her nationality. I say without hesitation that
as soon as that nationality was ascertained to be
bona fide Sardinian (as it must immediately on
boarding have been ascertained), not merely from
her flag and papers, but from the well-known his-

tory arid character of the vessel herself, that the
limited and doubtful authority of the Sicilian ship
was certainly and clearly at an end. The rights
of visit' and ' detention are rights of war. Sar-
dinia and the Two Sicilies were not at war. If it
was supposed that there was ground of complaint
against the Cagliari, it was manifest upon every
principle of international law that this vessel so
arrested in time of peace upon the high seas should
have been allowed to continue her course ; and the

complaint should have been urged to the ,ardinian

Government, or before the co-arts by which she
was alone justiciable—namely, the courts of the
amicable and, be it also observed, closely neigh
bouringPower, to the subjects of which the Cagliari'
was well known to appertain. Before I turn from
this part of the subject I should notice an objection
which has been taken with respect to the alleged in-
sufficiency of the papers on board the Cagliari. Upon

this point a very 'great error as to the requisitions of
international law is maintained in the Sicilian
statement. It is no part cf t in duty, or of the right
of foreign States to inquire into the question whe-
ther the vessel of another State does or does not
carry all the papei a which the municipal law of her
own country requires. If there be a sufficient con-
stat of the nationality of the vessel the foreign na-
tion has no right to inquire further. It does, how-
ever, so happen that in this case the Cagliari had
on board the Patents, the having which was suffi-
cient to supply the demands of her own municipal
law. And here it is, perhaps, not inopportune to
remark that during the recent war with Russia the
Prize Courts of Great Britain constantly refused to
condemn, even as prize, a vessel lawfully captured
upon the high seas, upon the ground that she del
not carry all the papers required by the municipal
law of her own country. The proposition put forth
by the Admiralty Board of the Two Sicilies, namely
—' Esio mancava dells carte necessarie di horde,
pel difetto delle qualificato pirate,' and which being
interpreted with reference to the circumstances of
the case, means, that because all the papers which
her municipal law might require were not on board
the Cagliari she was therefore a pirate, is a novel
proposition and fraught with danger to all com-
mercial States. It is quite clear, therefore, that
neither at the time when the Cagliari left
Genoa, nor at the time when she was seized, was
she, in fact, in intention, or destination, piratically
employed. Indeed, it is not difficult to perceive that
the Sicilian Government are aware that this allega-
tion of piracy cannot be sustained, for upon a fore-
sight of its failure they advance another proposition,
and one which I will venture to say is on the face of
it plainly at variance with the first principles and
acknowledged practice of international law. That
proposition is, that if the Cagliari was not herself a
pirate, nevertheless having been taken by pirate;
she Lad become their property and was seizable as
such. lamat a loss to express my surprise at this
argument, for it is one of the most trite and certain
maxims of international jurisprudence, flowing from
the very character and definition of piracy, that
capture by pirates effects no legal change in the
property, which continues to belong to the o:Oual
owner. ' Idque,' as Bynkershoek observes, ' est
Juris communis, quo apud omnes genies receptum
eat pirates, dominiuni] nou mutare.' It is hardly
necessary to observe that it is not competent to the
Sicilian Government, though the coati ary seems to
have been supposed by them, by inserting a defini-
tion of piracy into their municipal code, to altertho
general law of nations upon this or any other point
iu which all States are concerted, however such al.
teration may affec t the subjects of that Government.
But if the Sicilian law did (which it does not) fur-
nish any authority on this occasion, it would be
impossible to contend according to any recognises
rules of construction that the Cagliari belonged to
the class described in that law as ' bastimenti ap-
partenenti ai nemici del regno.' It remains to cou-
aider the other ground upon which the seizure of
the Cagliari was justified, and which also occupies
the other portion of the folio volume before referred
to. Thet ground is, that the Cagliari was seized
as a lawful prize during the time of war and in
exercise of the rights of self-defence accruing to the
Crown of the Two Sicilies, or, as it is alleged,
otwo
inh eer e a
oI must
r.o
cfierds
et o
toebd-
sveinrvi. evithraePt eiltienatearNs
io n
upon
omtpwt
otowhjuosllty raifysetphsesteeiz
andi of e
a s
i—at one time virtually alleging a state of i ea:e an,
tforeignnsten tg r o u vesselndis
making an accusation of piracy ; at another, alleg-
ing a state of war, and putting forth a claim of
P• rize There is great inconvenience as well as
novrlty in this mode of procedure, for under cover
of this double defence ( r attack (whichever it be
called) arguments relating to one state
.of things
are
eey haveperp
noetu ti
alleyobnlneencdeo. Butdnwithatl in whatother war wasthwiucL ,
the Crown of the Two Sicilies engaged ? Not in a
war with any other State—but, it is said, in that
kind of war with its own subjects which Grotius
calls bellum, mixtion. This is a very grave question,
and of the deepest interest to all States. It must,
Itvh%.htintkii, beree
iasdamkititnead,ofasciaviml
caotitlefirictofbefatvrcteaennd
alaw,-Go
ell131"nt dejure and a Government de facto, which
eonfct mu
in tk5 cat e e proportions and must be placed
gomies the
ry of a regular war, and which is /01'