The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-15 00:00:00

England's Action on the Alibama Claims.

The Press of both England and America have
returned to the discussion of the claims of the
United States against Great Britain for the depre-
dations of the Confederate cruisers. We are happy
in having led the way in reopening this discussion
in a spirit of conciliation, and, we believe, not a
moment too soon. England will have taken a step
in the right direction by anticipating the action of
America. Those who wish to complicate the rela-
tions will by this move have the ground on which
they mainly relied cut from under them. We re-
gret the position which some of the American news-
papers appear inclined to take up on this subject.
sewhere we give an article from the TVatchman
and Reflector, a Boston religious journal of high
standing,
but which in the instance before us
t is
step
a grave
questionth e
protection whether
ofßritish
ought to
ctoamk e
any towards _
" merce from the fate of war when it Such
comes.
" a measure as this is not to our taste
it.
she has
66 taken her stand—let her hold • These; are
not true Christian principles" , and h
t e atc
Reflector will not contradict us hen we hman and
maintain
that it is on broad Christian principles that the
policy of Christian Governments should be
grounded. We freely confess that England made a
I mistake in giving a more general sympathy to the
South than to the North in the great t s ruo•gle be-
tween Slavery and Freedom. We allow that the
case of the Alabama admits of no justification.
But it is also true that America as a whole sym-
pathised with Russia against England in the
struggle of the Western Powers to curb the
domineering a.. owrandisement of the Muscovite ruler
—that America sent forth cruisers against Portu-
guese commerce, and refused that nation redress--
o
that when invited to J • in as one of the great mari-
time Powers at the Congress at Paris, to suppress
privateering, she declined to give the International
Law the sanction of her authority. The nations
are now all at peace, and now is the time to lay
down a code of laws which will protect commerce
•
against such wanton acts of spoliation as that suf-
fered by Portugal in the war with Brazil, and that
suffered by the United States in the War of the
Rebellion. If America is to treasure up a wrong
done herself, and to establish it as a precedent to
retaliate on other nations, wrong will beget wrong,
till International Law becomes a dead letter. It
matters not what the object of England is, whether
she sees in the future a grievous injury to herself,
if such precedents as that of the Alabama are to
be made a rule. The question for America is,
she has sustained a grievous injury, the nation
which has been made the means of inflicting this
injury, is, we hope and believe, prepared to make
reparation—is America to refuse this reparation,
having herself been instrumental in establishing
the rule under which she suffered,
hopes of redressing
these wrongs by inflicting on
the nation at h w ose hands she suffered them a still
greater injury ? It is incumbent on the people and
statesmen of the Union to consider the question on
its broadest basis of truth. The Civil War in-
flicted on England a terrible • •
injury. It was
commenced on the part of the South • with a settled
conviction that the destruction of
England's manu-
factures would be so great that ;she could
not
main-