The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-05 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 5, 1858.

In another part of our impression will be found
some very interesting documents referring to the
capture of the Cagliari, which now seems to be
generally admitted to have been totally unwar-
ranted and unjustifiable. The act of piracy was
committed not by the Sardinian steamer, but by
the Neapolitan frigates which pursued and cap-
tured her on the high seas, and far beyond the
Neapolitan waters. The able and ela-
borate opinion of Dr. TRATERS Twins,
on which we offered some observations on Friday,
sets this question at rest. To our simple judgmext,
the notion that the capt sin of the Cagliari volun-
tarily surrendered is a mere quibble, which could
not now be sustained before any independent and
honest tribunal. It might just as well be said,
that a man voluntarily surrendered his purse to the
highwayman, who with presented pistol demanded
"his money or his life," and that therefore the mo-
dern DICK TURPIN or JERRY ABERSIIAW could not
justly be punished for what might be considered
a free gift. Two armed vessels pursued a peace-
ful merchantman, fired before her in order to bring
her to, and were prepared to fire into and sink
her, had she not at once submitted. It would
have been vain to have contended against such a
superior force. The Captain did what, as a pru-
dent man, he could not have avoided, with any re-
gard to the lives of those committed to his charge.
Had he not done so the charge might have been
one of murder iu place of false imprisonment,
and his forbearance and prudence, which went
far to show that he was not conscious of any
guilt, could not place the conduct of his captors
in a more favourable point of view, or deprive
him of a just claim for compensation for the
wrongs he had sustained.

Still less could it affect the rights and pri-
vileges of the English engineers, who were entitled
both to Sardinian and British protection, To the
former, inasmuch as they were sailing under its
tag on neutral waters, and might therefore prac-
tically be considered as within the Piedamontese
territory, to the latter because as British citizens
they had an inalienable claim on the government
to which they owed allegiance, which could not
be abandoned, save by a violation of laws to
which they hadvoluntari/y become amenable. Now
could it under the circumstances be alleged that
they had abandoned that privileges. As we have
already explained, the Master of the Cagliari
yielded to duress, under the reasonable appre-
hension of being fired into and sunk, but even if
he decided on surrendering without compulsion,
could those who entered his vessel for a different
destination, and without any improper design, be
held responsible for his acts, or be held to have
acquiesced therein because they did not enter
an immediate protest ? With all submission
to the authority of the late law officers
we must still contend that such was not
the case. Every one knows how absurd it would
be for a seaman at sea to resist any course de-
cided on by the captain, although it may be
totally different from that for which lie had
entered or signed articles. He would be in as
great duress as the Sardinian steamer was under
the guns of the frigates. "To hear " must be
"to obey " on the high seas. There is no op-
tion, no means of escape, and therefore the parties
who silently submit, do not by any means forfeit
their right by reason of such submission. Wore
it otherwise the law would, indeed, be what Mr.
Buaisue termed it,—" A ass, and a idiot 1"
Count CAvouß, in his very able and spirited
despatch of the 10th January, has denounced,
what he truly designates as " the criminal out-
rage committed against the security of a friendly
State," and proved it to be without the shadow
of justification. Nor has M. CARAYA in any
degree rebutted the powerful and unanswerable
case made out by the Sardinian Minister.
It is very unfortunate that there should have
been any misunderstanding respecting the views
and opinions of the British Government by that
of Turin, in consequence of the grave mistake of
Mr. ERSKINE—a mistake in which Sir J. HUDSON
participated, inasmuch as he could not have
read the document to which he affixed
his signature, and which was so ma-
terially altered after the original draft had
been approved. It would, indeed, be hard if the
Sardinian Government should be misled by sue'i
an act. Great Britain is clearly responsible for
the acts of her diplomatic agents, whatever they
may be, and after the expression of
opinion
(albeit an unauthorised expression) can warrant
us in departing therefrom, or leaving Sardinia

Three cheers for Mr. BLACKABY ! We had
several noble or honourable champions for pliblic
voting at the late elections, several distinguished
opponents of the Ballot, but they must all yield
the palm to BLACKABY. Only a few days ago,
we bad a tournament in high places ; Mr.
OSBORNE entered the lists with Mr. Dlsnam,r,
and after entertaining the House of Commons one
evening, and all the country the next day, was
fain to retire, the prize having been adjudicated by
acclamation to the Knight of the Shire for Bucks.

We find, however, in the Herts Mercury the re-
port of another battle, with Mr. BLAOLABY for its
hero. The Ballot Society had presumed to
intrude a deputation on the quiet borough, and
even to get possession of the Town Hall, and
therein to deliver an address or two on their
odious Radical dogma. Now the little borough
is one which belongs of right and about equally to
Whigs and Tories ; Whig it should have been
according to the intention of the heroes of the
Reform Act, but it has always been a half and half
constituency, or, we should rather say, a Liberal
Conservative one; that is, such has been the shape
and form given it between the Marquis of SALIS-
BURY and Earl COWPER, who both willed that radi-
cal their borough should not be ; but, that seeing
Lord COWPER wanted accommodation, one seat
might be reserved for him, and the other bestowed
upon some fit and proper Conservative, like Sir
WALTER TOWNSHEND MINTO FARQUHAR (we be-
lieve we have given the Noble Member all his
names) and Hertford stood, we doubt not, in the
books of the late Mr. COPPOCI, as a Tory-Whig

borough.
Hither, then, the agents of the Ballot society
had the audacity to come ; they must have ex-
pected to be outvoted at least ; and thankful they
might well be, if the horsepond or the pump did
not cool their Radical seal. The Whigs and Tories,
however, praised be their moderation, contented
themselves with open fight against secret voting—
a rather uproarious fight, to be sure ; but still
the only danger to which the intruders were sub-
jected was that of being drowned, not in water
but in noise. So no bones were broken, nor wore
any such falls endured as that suffered by poor
Mr. ML&LL, when the Islington Evangelical
Clergymen pitched him bodily over the front of the
platform for Anti-State Churchism.
Now we hope political truth is no libel, so we
venture to repeat, after the Hells Mercury, that
BLACKABY, onee an extreme Radical, is now a
Conservative ; prepared, of course, to call that
black which he once called white, and white what
he once called black. " Set a smuggler to catch
a smuggler" is, we know, an approved rule at her
MAJESTY'S customhouses ; there are variations of
it---in which the word "rogue" is the substitute
for smuggler, but that is of no consequence. Still
the fact is, that Mr. BLACKABY, though having no
connection that we can conceive with " moon-
shine" or " mountain dew," much less with
roguery, yet having had in the days of his wild
oats some connection with Radicalism, was the
fitting man to bait a Ballot lecturer, and most
pertinaciously was the baiting done. It is certain
that the Whigs and Tories could not easily have
found a champion more insensible to argument,
more determined to interrupt, and withal a bigger
man, in his own esteem, when the whole meeting
was roaring with laughter at his absurdities. The
advocate was admirably worthy of the cause.
Could not the Ballot society znancouvre to make
him serve at every public meeting, as CALCRAFT
does at almost every scaffold. They would com-
mand crowded meetings, if they could but au-
nounce—" BLACKABY, the Hereford man, is en-
gaged to attend."
The battle can hardly be adequately described.
Our readers must peruse the account of this
"Mill Extraordinary" for themselves. The
shoemaker—we forgot that BLACKABY was a
Knight of St. Crispin—began with the cry of
" question "—" the Ballot," the lecturer having,
as he, BLACKABY, conceived, departed from the
question, by proving cases of coercion from the
speeohes or letters of Tory candidates. Soon,
however, that modest demand was forgotten.
Some one told the lecturer that BLAOKABY was a
lunatic! Loud laughter follows—the accusation of
being a man in the Moon, or Moonstruck, of
course, fired the sober convert to conservatism. "He
would be heard," that he would ; and by interjec-
tion he was heard, till the lecturer, in return for a
text of Scripture, from BLACKABY, gave him another
which BLACKABY seemed inclined to appropriate
personally as a cap which fitted ; and, unfortu-
nately, it was a hypocrite's cap.
Amongst his other accomplishments, for attack-
ing the Ballot, BLACKABY appears to have qualified
himself to spout poetry—perhaps, having prac-
tised in some Discussion Forum,—and now a most
extraordinary scene commenced. BLACKABY was
determined that the meeting should hear some
verses from HANNA MORE I The tasteless meet-
ing wanted no poetry, but dry argument on the
Ballot. Now the meeting laughed down the
sonorous orator, reciting with uplifted arm, and
now the spouter resumed after the laughter had
subsided. Another line,—quenched in laughter
again. Again, another half line. BLACKABY
would not be beaten—till at last the meeting
was fairly vanquished, and consented to hear four
lines of HANNAH MORE from the BLACKABY
Conservative shoemaker as the best compromise.
The lecturer now had his turn, and fired off two
lines at the victorious BLACKABY, which seemed
to give him a quietus for the time.
But only for the time. BLACKABY was of the
stuff that Waterloo heroes are made of—he did
not know when he was beaten. At the end,
nothing daunted, ho returned to the charge.
Roars of laughter again met BLACKABY, but, as he
naively observed, " He did not know why people
laughed, there was a proverb that " fools laugh
but wise men keep their countenance." So
BLACKABY kept his—and we doubt not keeps it
still—for he and his Whig and Tory friends at
Hertford may have need of it again. We hope
the next Ballot meeting at Hertford will be duly
advertised, and a special train engaged to convey
us Londoners to Hertford and back, to witness the
next coming off of BLACKABY and the

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—Tuesday, the 13th inst ,
is find for the opening night of the season.
HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—MadIIe. Titiens arrived
in London on Thursday last. All the artistes who have
part in the "Huguenots" are already here, and the
opening of the season is spoken of for Tuesday, the 13 h
of this month.

The Duke and Duchess of Hamilton will leave Rome
on the Mh ins'., for 'Nic?. Their Graces are expected
to arrive is London at the latter end of the month.
The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland are passing
the season at Sion House, Isleworth.

The Marquis of Salisbury has returned to Hatfield,
from Scotland. The Marchioness is staying on a visit
with the Earl and Countess Dal.kwarr, at Buckharat
Park, near Tunbridge Wells.
Lord John Rus.,ell, immediately aft•r the holidays,
will resume the occupation of his residence in Chesbam-
place, just vacated by Lord Panmure.
Toe Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone and Mrs. Gladstone
and family come to town to-day, from Ilawarden Castle,
Chester.