The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-28 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, OCT. 28, 1867.

Disappointment has succeeded to the hopes that

were formed about Italy being relieved from the

horrors of war. This is to be regretted on many
accounts, for the condition of European affairs is not

at all so satisfactory as it might be without this new

grievance starting up. At any rate the patience of
the Emperor NAPOLEON has been exhausted by the

uncertain state of matters, and by the perversity
with which the insurgents have pursued
their object. The troops of the French Em-
PEROR are now in Civita Vecchia, and
may probably march on to Rome before very long.

This most undesirable turn of affairs has been

brought about by various causes, foremost among
which we may mention the inability displayed by
the Italian Government to restrain the force and
fury of the Garibaldians. Of course they were
placed in most difficult circumstances, but it would
have been a very fortunate thing if they had con-
trived to rescue themselves and others from the
awkward position in which they are now placed.
We deeply deplore the sad condition in which
Italy now is, and the worst is that there seems no
very great likelihood of an extrication for some
time to come. The course pursued by GARIBALDI
is a most misguided one, and his admirers must
feel greatly concerned not only for his safety, but
for the great responsibilities which he has brought
on himself. It would have been a far more patrio-
tic course to have taken to have let things alone for
some years at least, and allowed Italy to consolidate
the great triumphs which she won by the war of last
summer, than to have rushed heedlessly and reck-
lessly into a conflict of which no one can foretell the
consequences, but which may probably end in ruin,
defeat, and perhaps death. It would seem from the
accounts that are received from Italy that GARI-
BALDI has worked himself up to that pitch of excite-
ment and enthusiasm when men cease to reason,
and forget to judge calmly and collectedly. The
consequence of this unwise resolve on his part will
be felt for many a long day to come, and at no
period could they be more untoward than at present
on account of the complications in Germany, and
the great responsibility that rests on France.
The Emperor NAPOLEON has, indeed, fallen on
evil days of late, and the long course of unbroken,
success that had attended the enterprises of his
eventful reign seems to have changed into darker
and more fitful states of fortune, but no ono can
deny that his present position is a most unenviable
one. Whatever he bad done in this Italian busi-
ness there would have been found many to declare
that he was wrong, and to have adduced many
potent arguments to show that it was so, and that
their deductions were quite correct. Now he is in
this dilemma, that on one side he is called upon to
keep his pledge, and on tho other he must crush, or
seek to crush, the very race whose freedom he was
mainly instrumental in procuring. At the same
time it must be borne in mind that NAPOLEON has
shown no readiness to rush to extremities. He
allowed things to take their course for some
time before he came to a decision about his
own time of action, and even now he would doubt-
less be glad to meet the Italian Government
half way ; but the danger exists in the fact that the
Italians are not likely to make the best of things,
or to put anything like a favourable interpretation
upon the policy ho has pursued. No doubt much
of the evil that we now deplore, and that we appre-
hend for the future, might have been avoided if the
September Convention had been better framed ; but
as they stood, it was wellnigh impossible for the
French EMPEROP, to act otherwise. In the mad
excitement that now prevails it is quite idle to
expect that this will be recognised, and
by this time the word will have gone forth that the
Emperor NAPOLEON has sided with the oppressors
of Italian liberty. It would seem as if an evil in-
fluence pervaded the nations of the Continent just
now, for no sooner does one think that any par-
ticular kingdom or community has g tine] solid and
lasting advantage than forthwith it is again en-
vironed by doubts, and overshadowed by misfor-
It was the one salient po'nt in the

tune.

There are, perhaps, few national characteristics
of which an Englishman is more justly proud than
the courage and readiness which his seafaring
countrymen have always exhibited in the dangers
incident to their profession. More especially does
he congratulate himself on the daring humanity
which has won for the sailors on many parts of our
exposed and dangerous coasts so wide a reputation.
Every year, as the mournful lists of wreck and
disaster tell the sorrowful history of the tempests
of the year, the general regret is in some degree
mitigated by the records of successful
bravery, which show at the same time how
much more grievous would have been the in-
telligence without the prompt assistance often
rendered at great risk to life and limb. It is there-
fore somewhat mortifying to find that our French
neighbours think they have good reason to complain
of the manner in which some of these services are
rendered, and that so far from regarding the Eng-

lish salvors of property as worthy of imitation,
they think it would be well for us to copy their
maritime legislation so as to put some check
on the greed and officiousness of selfish and
interested assistants. It is worth while to examine
a little into the nature of these charges.

It must be remarked at the outset that the com-
plaints made have no reference whatever to the
agents of that National Institution for saving life
and property from disasters at sea that has been so
warmly applauded, and even closely imitated by
the French themselves. The salvors, of whom
complaints are made, are those men on our coasts
who take up the business of saving property from
shipwreck, of assisting ships in danger, &c., as a
means of livelihood, often running great risk and
undergoing considerable hardships, it is true, but
doing so entirely as a matter of business, with a
view to personal profit. In the current number of
the Lifeboat we find an interesting article, very
fairly and temperately written, from which it ap-
pears that our Continental neighbours regard this
question of salvage as a very great grievance to
their smaller shipowners. The Committee of
Underwriters of Paris have lately issued a circular
complaining that on the English coasts the violent
proceedings of the salvors of property contrast
strangely with the admirable arrangements for the
persons of shipwrecked sailors, and that assistance
in danger often results in spoliation and the pillage
of property. " The least service rendered to a
vessel in danger gives rise to exorbitant pretensions,
and degenerates into exaction. The pilot trans-
forms himself into a sailor for having simply ful-
filled an act of his profession. Thus our captains
dread almost as much as the rocks the uncontrol-
lable auxiliaries who would impose themselves on
them, and the calling of salvage approaches to
piracy." The Paris underwriters declare that so
often are the smaller vessels trading between France
and England the victims of these extortioners that
they refuse to insure them, not doing so from fear
of the storms and rocks, but of the English salvors.
A French pamphlet recently published in Paris,
and afterwards endorsed by the " Sociad Centrale
de Sauvetage des Naufrages," enters very fully into
the matter, and, after comparing the laws of France
and England on the subject, speaks very strongly
of the bad working of the appeal to the High Court
of Admiralty. If the salvors have to do with a
foreign captain, whom they suppose not to be able
to provide a deposit or to find a surety in the port,
they do not hesitate to claim over £2OO in order
to reserve the power of carrying the case to the
Admiralty Court, " which entails on the master the
seizure of his vessel, the interruption of his operations
during several months, and the accumulation of
enormous expenses." It is true that the claimants
run the risk of having to pay the expenses them-
selves ; .but this seldom restrains them, because they
have in many ports a common fund, out of which
such losses are paid, and besides they know very
well that a threatened appeal to the Admiralty
Court will speedily effect a compromise. The ad-
vice of the Committee of Underwriters in Paris is
that " even if the success of a suit in the Admiralty
Court were certain it would still be more prudent
and more economical to effect a compromise, at
whatever cost, rather than to have recourse to that
tribunal." The consequence is that while the
French salvors, in disputed cases,'are thankful to
receive one twenty-fifth part of the value of the
cargo in England, "the indemnity sometimes ex-
ceeds the half of the value of the ship and cargo."
Such aro the charges thus deliberately brought, and
in part at least substantiated, by our French neigh-
bours, and certainly in face of such accusations the