The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY. EVENING, MARCH 4, 1859.

be any great sub-division of property. If left
between several children, it may be fortwith sold
at a moderate cost, and the proceeds divided
amongst the parties fairly entitled thereto.
The change is one required by every prin-
ciple of equity and fair play. It im-
poses no restriction ; all that is demanded
is, that in the event of a party dying in-
testate his wife and younger children should not
be left destitute, but that they should in some
degree participate in the bounties lavished on one
who has no stronger claims on the husband and
father than those which would be completely
ignored unless the bill should receive the Legisla-
tive sanction.

Accounts from the far East are in the highest
degree satisfactory. From India we learn that
Lord CLYDE formally announces the campaign to
have closed, and to have closed triumphantly.
According to a General Order from the Governor-
General, the Commander-in-Chief pronounces Re-
bellion to have ceased in Oude. Quiet was restored
to the Bombay Presidency. A field force, under
Sir Hr au ROSE, was en route for Aurungabad, to

put down the lawless Rohillas, still devastating the
Nizam's territory. TANTIA TOPEE, defeated on the
21st January, 1859, at Seekur, was by the 26th in
full flight either to Beekaneer or to Joudhpore—
but by the 6th of February had again directed his
steps northward towards Munglowe, in the

Shekawattee. From China the latest news is that
his Excellency the Earl—soon, no doubt, to be
Marquess—of ELGIN has been celebrating the
completion of his late extraordinary diplomatic
successes by penetrating into the interior of the
Celestial Empire—going 500 or 600 miles from
Shanghai up the broad flood of the mighty river
the Yang-tse-Kiang. Penetrating to the almost
fabulous Hankow—proving that the whole distance
may be accomplished by a steamer in four or five
days—astonishing the natives by his apparition in
those remote inland waters, surrounded by his
attendant barbarians, with their little array,
formed :by the Dove and the Lee gunboats in com-
panionship with her MAJESTY'S ships the Furious
and Retribution. Eventually—upon Lord ELGIN'S
return to this country, to receive the reward he
has well deserved—his lordship would do good
service towards the diffusion of general knowledge,
towards the advansement of the interests of com-
merce and of civilisation, if he prepared for the
press a fitting historical record of his late glorious
Asiatic Expeditions.

PROTECTION OF AMERICAN
PROPERTY.

President Buchanan sent an important message to
Congress on the 18th, calling upon them to give
him powers to use the army and navy to protect
American citizens and property on the Isthmus
transit routes. Subjoined is a copy of the message :
"To THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
" The brief period which remains of your present session,
and the great urgency and importance of legislative action
before its termination for the protection of American citizens
and their property while in transit across the Isthmus,
between our Atlantic and Pacific possessions, render it my
duty again to recall this subject to your notice.
" I have heretofore presented it in my annual messages,
both of December, 1857, and December, 1858, to which I
beg leave to refer.
" In the latter, I state that the Executive Government of
this country in its intercourse with foreign nations is limited
to the employment of diplomacy alone. Where this fails, it
can proceed no further. It cannot legitimately resort to
force without the direct authority of Congress, except in
resisting or repelling hostile attacks.
" It would have no authority to enter the territories of
Nicaragua even to prevent the destruction of the transit,
and protect the lives and property of our own citizens on
their passages. It is true that oh a sudden emergency of
this character the President would direct any armed force
in the vicinity to march to their relief, but in doing this he
would act upon his own responsibility.
" Under these circumstances I earnestly recommend to
Congress the passage of an Act authorising tie President,
under such restrictions as they may deem proper, to employ
the land and naval forces of the United States in preventing
the transit from being obstructed or closed by lawless vio-
lence, and in protecting the lives and property of American
citizens travelling thereupon, requiring, at the same time that
these forces shall be withdrawn the moment the danger
shall have passed away. Without such a 'provision our
citizens will be constantly exposed to interference in their
progress and to lawless violence. A similar necessity exists
for the passage of such an Act for the protection of the
Panama and Tehuantepec routes.
"Another subject equally important commanded the
attention of the Senate at the last session of Congress. The
Republics south of the United States on this continent
have unfortunately been in a state of revolution and civil
war ever since they achieved their independence. As one
or the other party has
.prevailed and obtained possession of
their ports open to foreign commerce, they have seized and
confiscated American vessels and their cargoes in an arbi-
trary and lawless manner, and exacted money from Ame-
rican citizens by forced loans and other violent proceedings
to enable them to carry on hostilities. The Executive
Governments of Great Britain, France, and other countries,
possessing the war-making power, can promptly employ
the necessary means to enforce immediate redress
for similar outrages upon their subjects. Not so the Execu-
tive Government of the United States. If the President
orders a vessel of war to any of those ports to demand
prompt redress for outrages committed, the offending parties
are well aware that in case of refusal the commander could
do no more than remonstrate ' • he can resort to no hostile
act. The question must then be referred to diplomacy, and
in many cases adequate redress cau never be obtained; thus
American citizens are deprived of the same protection under
the flag of their country which the subjects of other nations
enjoy.
"'The remedy for this state of things can only be sup-
plied by Congress, since the constitution has confided to
that body alone the power to make war. Without
the authority of Congress the President cannot lawfully
direct any force, however near it may be to the scene of
difficulty, to enter the territory of Mexico, Nicaragua, or
New Granada, for the purpose of defending the persons
and property of American citizens, even though they may
be violently assailed while passing in peaceful transit over
the Tehuantepec, Nicaragua, or Panama routes. He
cannot, without transcending his constitutional power,
direct a gun to be fired into a port, or land a seaman
or marine to protect the lives of our countrymen on,
shore, or to obtain redress for a recent outrage on their
property. The banditti which infest our neighbouring
republic of Mexico, always claiming to belong to one
or the other of the hostile parties, might male a sudden
descent on Vera Cruz or the Tehauntepec route, and he
would have no power to employ the force on shipboard in
the vicinity for their relief, either to prevent the plunder
of our merchants or the destruction of the transit. In
reference to countries where the local authorities are
strong enough to enforce the laws, the difficulties here
indicated can seldom happen ; but where this is not the
case, and the local authorities do not possess the physical
power even if they possess the will to protect our citizens
within their limits, recent experience has shown that the
American Executive should itself be authorised to render
this protection. Such a grant of authority thus limited in
its extent could in no just sense be regarded as a transfer
of the war-making power to the Executive, but only as an
appropriate exercise of that power by the body to whom it
exclusively belongs. The riot in Panama in 18,56, in which
a great number of our citizens lost their lives, furnishes a
pointed illustration of the necessity-which may arise for
the exertion of this authority.
" I therefore earnestly recommend to Congress, on whom
the responsibility exclusively rests, •to pass a law before
their adjournment conferring on the President the power to
protect the lives and property of American citizens in the
cases which I have indicated, under such restrictions and
conditions as they may deem advisable. The knowledge
that such a law exists would of itself go far to prevent the
outrages, which it is intended to redress, and render the
employment of force unnecessary. -Without this the Presi-
dent of the United States may be placed in a painful posi
tion before the meeting of the next Congress. In the present
disturbed condition of Mexico, and one or more of the other
republics south of us, no person can foresee what occurrences
may take place before that period.
" In case of emergency our citizens, seeing that they do
not enjoy the same protection with the subjects of European
Governments, will have just cause to complain. On the
other hand, should the Executive interpose, and especially
should the result prove disastrous, and valuable lives be
lost, he might subject himself to severe censure for having
assumed a power not confided to him by the Constitution.
It is to guard against this contingency that I now appeal to
Congress. Having thus recommended to Congress a mea-
sure which I deem necessary and expedient for the interest
and honour of the country, I leave the whole subject to
their wisdom and discretion.

" JAMES BUCHANAN.

" Dated at Washington, Feb. 18."
The message was debated in the Senate, but no
action taken in reference to it.