The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-03 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
WASHINGT ON, Noy . 19.
The news from Amelica by this mail will need no
introduction to public notice—it is deeply and pain.
fully interesting, and nothing that I can say is re-
quired to fix upon it every thought of the nation.
Presuming that the intelligence has reached London
(either by the West India mail or by the City of
Washington, which left New York on Saturday)

before the arrival of this letter, I shall at once pro-
ceed to a brief history of this extraordinary and un-
precedented occurrence, of which full details can be
bad from the American papers, and from the pas-

sengers of the Trent. If I use words such as "out-
rage" or "insult" in the remarks I shall have to

make, they will be merely the expressions most
suited to characterise such an unusual display of
force towards an allied and friendly power, and

are not intended to prejudge the issues which are
raised in this country in reference to the absolute
right of the United States to make that display and
to use that force in accordance with international
law. It appears that the United States' second-
class screw steamer San Jacinto, of 13 guns, Capt.
Wilkes, on her way back from the coast of Africa
to reinforce the blockading fleet, put into Havannah
for coal, and while there Captain Wilkes heard
that Mr. Slidell and Mr. Mason, the Commissioners
from the Confederate States to France and Eng-
land, had engaged passages on board the Royal
West India mail steamer Trent at Havannah, and
would sail for England on the 7th inst. He imme-
diately resolved to seize upon them, and for that
purpose lay out in the Bahama Channel, where
he met the Trent on the Bth of November, and
brought her to by firing round shot across her
bows. This is believed to have occurred in Spanish
waters. A boat loaded with marines was sent on
hoard the Trent, under the command of Lieutenant
Fairfax, who informed the captain that he had come
to arrest Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell, his passen-
gers. Mr. Mason was on deck at the time, and Mr.
Slidell came up from his cabin almost immediately.
In one account it is said the captain refused to
show his passenger list or give any information to
Lieutenant Fairfax, and that the latter recognised
Mo. Mason from previous acquaintance, and it is
added that the latter appealed to the captain for
protection, and asked if he would permit such an
insult to his flag, to which appeal that gentleman
made an inaudible reply. It may be inferred that
he remonstrated against the seizure, as it is known
he made a protest to Lieutenant Fairfax against the
act before the latter left the ship with his prisoners.
The gentlemen, on being informed of their danger,
went below to their cabins, but Lieutenant Fairfax
followed them, and declared he would remove them
by force if necessary. Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell
declared they would only yield to force, and the ma-
rines, who had gone below with the officer, then
took them by the shoulders, which was a sufficient
display of force for the purpose, and the prisoners
then took leave of their families, who were induced
by the express wish of husband and father, to pro-
ceed on their way to Europe in the Trent, after a
scene which is described as inexpressibly affecting.
Mr. Eustis, who was acting as secretary to Mr. Sli-
dell, and Mr. M'Farland, who was accompanying
Mr. Mason in the same capacity, were also arrested
and were transferred with their baggage and papers
to the San Jacinto, where they drew up a formal
protest against their arrest and delivered it to Cap-
tain Wilkes for his Government, The Trent then
resumed her voyage, taking with her Mrs. Slidell,
her daughters and sons, and Mrs. Eustis and her
two children. The husband of the latter lady was
member of Congress for Louisiana, and is an able
and amiable man ; he is in delicate health, and was
proceeding to Europe as much to enjoy quiet and
procure medical treatment as to engage in politics.
His wife is the only child, I believe, of Mr. Corco-
ran, the opulent banker of Washington. Of Mr.
Mason and Mr. Slidell and of their mission enough
has been said already. They are now in Fort
Warren, and the whole country rings with joy at
the news that enemies so skilful, so energetic, so
accomplished should by this unexpected stroke of
daring be placed in the power of the United States
when it scorned that their mission must inevitably
have prospered. But they have ceased to be " rebels."
Their forms expand in their dungeon. Instead of
being the disloyal citizens of the rebellious provinces
of the United States, which they were when they
entered the British packet, they are the recognised
" ambassadors of a belligerent and independent na-
tionality !" For this is the violence avenged, and
thus, at the very moment of its commission, are the
authors of the outrage hoisted by their own petard.
Joy at the news, then astonishment, then a general
inquiry, " What will England say ?" Then a few
more began to think and count the cost of Slidell
and Mason. Some said, " It's all right ; we'll make an
apology, but we can't give up the prisoners." Others
wondered what Lord Lyons would do or Mr. Seward

would say. Others abused Englond in anticipation
as a safe measure under all circumstances ; a few

threatened terrible things—like a writer, an officer
of the Congress, who this morning invites all the
Monarchs of Europe generally to come on if they
like and join the South, in the Jefferson Brick
style. The streets buzzed with the talk, and the
hotel roared with it, and the bar rooms were full of
it. Among the crowd all was delight and excite-
ment. But the Cabinet Council which was held im-
mediately was not so radiant. Visits were ex-
changed among the foreign Ministers; they all
called on Lord Lyons. The domestic Ministers, the
Frer ch Princes, the Generals were also greatly

moved, and some there were who did not conceal
their dread of the consequence of an act so violent
and so strange. There was a question continually
arising, " What will the people say in England ?
How will they take this, I wonder ?" But Sunday
intervened, and time was given to the Government
to take up a definite line, and to suggest to their
organs some form of vindication. The consequence
was that all the papers began to speak of it as the
most natural and ordinary thing in the world to
board a mail steamer and take " ambassadors" out
of her. Then Slidell and Mason became at once
" ambassadors" of a " belligerent Power" on board
a neutral vessel ; or sometimes curiously enough,
they were made " contraband of war." Wheaton
was consulted ; there was a great rush after Vattel
and our old friends Puffdndorf and Grotius ; but
these honest gentlemen could not throw much light
on the matter, as an act of that sort never entered
into their heads. De Hautefeuille and Wheaton
were in men's mouths and hands, and a very extra-
ordinary farrago of law and nonsense was
the result, as may be seen by looking
into most of the American papers which refer to the
matter. The base of the argument in justification
is to be found in an article of the National Intelli-
gence,. of Monday, and that article is founded on a
misconception of c • ertain passages in Wheaton and
ignorance or suppression of others, But there is
this singular result from the reasoning—that, if it is
good for anything, the United States acknowledges
the belligerent character of the
Confederate States,
and has formally declared that Messrs. Slidell and
Mason are ambassadors. " Rebels" out of the juris-
diction of the State against which they revolted are
but political offenders, entitled to the protection of
the neutral flag under which they sail as fully and
indisputably as they are entitled to the protection of
the laws and of the flag of England or of the United
States in one of their streets. It is singular enough,
too, that the Americans above all people should be
the first to offer such an outrage upon that principle,
and to inflict such a wound on their own Constitu-
tion at the same time. If there were any nations
in the world which could accept this new doctrine
with advantage, it would be England and France,
for they would have the undisputed police of
the
seas, and the United States would be estopped from
any objection. But we are too old for these new
teachings. Dr. Phillimore will be astonished to
find that he is quoted as an authority to justify the
act, inasmuch as he says "It is indeed competent
to a belligerent to stop the ambassador of his enemy
in his passage," and further observes the carriage
of military persons in the employ of a belligerent or
of official communications leads to the confiscation
or a „h•
Wherefore and whereby, say the Ame-
rican ars let
ful thDmPe the English nation be very thank-
York, and e!"r_etlt was not seized, towed to New
onnscated. I apprehend, however, that

Dr. Phillimore may easily show he never meant
anything of the kind, and that his remarks and

dicta apply to cases whero neutral vessels acv_ espe-

cially engaged in the employ of the bellig, rent, or
are employed ad hoc so as to destroy their neu-
trality. Now, it will be observed that Wheaton
(ed. 1866, p. 570) expressly states that mail vessels
and vessels engaged in the postal service are exempted
from the operation of the penal code which applies to
other neutral vessels, and that, even admitting, with
the United States, that Messrs. Slidell and Mason
are " ambassadors " of the " Confederate States,"

though we have not recognised them yet, and that
they are not political offenders, it is beyond all show
of contradiction that they should have been perfectly
inviolate on board the Royal Mail steamer Trent,
and that they were and are entitled to the protec-
tion of the British flag. Although the United States
refuses the right of search in times of peace, it
claims it now. On what grounds ! "Because," says
the Intelligencer, "it is a belligerent right." But
the United States is not engaged in a war with a

belligerent Power; it is engaged suppressing, as it

asserts, a mere domestic rebellion. Thus the States

are caught in their own net. They cannot, in the
face of the world, blow hot and cold as they list.
The second point of law stated in the organ of the
Cabinet is settled by the very words of Wheaton,

as well as by the practice of all civilised nations.

The third lands Slidell and Mason as ambassadors

of the Confederate States—now recognised and
placed as a belligerent Power—in a prison.

Wheaton, it will be observed,relies on the judgment

of Sir W. Scott in the case of the Maria; but any
one who remembers that case will see at once it had

no relation, earthly or otherwise, to the present

seizure. With the word " fraudulently" staring
the writer in the face in reference to the carrying

of daspatcheslby a neutral, and the plain context of
the passage that the vessel was engaged for that

purpose in a fraudulent way, it required no small

amount of coolness or crassness to put it as a case
in point in the desperate effort of the United States

writer to turn the rebels Slidell and Mason into
the ambassadors of the Confederation. It surpasses

comprehension that in their blind anger the jour-
nalists should gravely maintain that in effect any

neutral mail vessel sailing from one neutral port to
another neutral port, which contains in its ordinary
mail a despatch from a belligerent, can be seized
and confiscated by the vessels of the other bellige-
rent. The carrying of despatches of an enemy re-
kident in a neutral country is no offence whatever

by the neutral. and Sir W. Scott distinctly points out
in that very judgment that it is not a legal trans-
port of persons or things belonging to a belligerent
from one neutral port to another to which he alludes,
but being " engaged in the transport service of the

enemy, or in the conveyance of military persons in
his employ, or the carrying of despatches ;" these
are acts of hostility which subject the vessel to con-
fiscation. The New Pork Times is, if possible, still
weak©r in its law and more unhappy in its argu-

ments, when it kindly states that the Royal West
India Mail Steam Packet Company ought to be very
"grateful to the commander of the San Jacinto for

his leniency in not bringing their vessel into a
United States' port, where she might have been con-
demned and sold as a lawful prize for the flagrant
breach of neutrality of which she has been guilty."
It is equally well for us that we are allowed to fly
our flag at all. The Sumter might afford some very
curious commentaries on these doctrines if she were
but to stop one of our ships and take Mr, Thurlow
Weed or Mr. Everett out of her. Mr. Adams had
better not venture to cross from Dover to Calais in
the mail steamer if the Sumter be near, and Mr.
Dudley Man must now take good head to his marine
excursions if there be a United States steamer in

the way.
If we could afford to make such a precedent as
this, the submission would be taken here as an evi-
dence of the right of the United States to do as it
pleased in making international law, and we should
be told to be very grateful that it was no worse.
Heaven forbid that I or any one should say one
word to increase the irritation and the difficulties
which must arise out of this most untoward and
unfortunate transaction. Let the case rest as it
stands until we hear what view is taken of it in
England. There will be scarcely any view but one
adopted by foreign nations. Arbitration may save
us from the horrors of a quasi civile belluna with
the United States, but it is scarcely creditable for
an ancient people to submit to such an adjustment
of one of the privileges fer which they have spent
so much of their best blood on the plains and
oceans of the world. I will say more, and I say
it with sorrow. In the present temper of the Ame-
rican people no concession can avert serious com-
plications very long, or the surrender of all the
boasted privileges of the Civis Romanus. I append
my diary, written before this news was known, and
therefore containing matters of less importance, but
brought up also to this date, and not destitute, per-
hape, of a little interest in a quieter time :

TUESDAY, Nov. 12.
Any man who expects that the acts of Great Bri,
tain will not be misconstrued and her intentions
misrepresented, either wilfully or maliciously, by a
large portion of the people of the United States,
who are under the influence of the press or of their
passions and traditions, will be certainly disap-
pointed. But I should be sorry to think there was
not—indeed, I know there is—a larger body still of
the population of Anglo-Saxon origin and sympa-
thies who are desirous of maintaining friendly rela-
tions with the old country, and whose power is
rarely felt till the moment of imminent danger of
rupture arrives in consequence of the acts of the
politicians or violent passions of the multitude.
Great Britain should nevertheless look the fact in
the face—it is to my mind incontrovertible that the
most certain way of achieving distinction or success
in politics in the United States is by directing popu-
lar animosity against the British Government and
what, in their quaint ignorance of the country, they
style the cotton aristocracy of England. Far be it
from me to say a word to add to the national
estrangement, which is the work of Americans, not
our own, and which is in effect probably wider at the
surface than it is beneath ; but in the interests of
truth I feel compelled to state the convictions of my
mind, that there are elements of danger to friendly
relations in the state of feeling which has been
aroused by the falsehoods and incessant outrages on
decency of some organs of the press and by the
leaders of the many-headed. Already success, such
as it is, begins to turn men's minds to the future of
this vast aggregation of men in arms, and there are
hints that they may be employed to illuminate the
close of their career by some brilliant campaign
against a foreign enemy. Although there is a ten-
dency to braggadocio among the people, there is no
use in closing our eyes to the existence of the spirit
of which such mouthful threats and causeless menaces
are the unmistakable manifestations. The papers
contain the intelligence that Mr. Charles Green, one
of the first merchants in Savannah, has been arrested
on a charge of buying munitions of war for the Con-
federates during his recent visit to England. Mr.
Green is an English subject long resident in Savan-
nah, and, as I was his guest during my stay in that
city, I can testify to the moderation of his senti-
ments, as all who know him can testify to the worth
and excellence of his private character. One of the
most serious charges which can be adduced against
this system of arbitrary arrests is that the friends
of the accused cannot exert themselves to investi-
gate the accusations, and that without proof, per-
force, they must deny they are true when they
affect the honour and character of men of the highest
position.b
been
e n
arrested,
Mra a his wifeonreen,sh
partner,
Mr. Lowe, has also
Etsirsb become
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awmna
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alinedh e r e
in custody. This gentleman
an, and I
doubt very much if he has eve
citizen of the United States or declared his inten-
tion of becoming one.
The most recent letters from New Orleans state
that great irritation prevails among the populace
against British subjects, because her Majesty's Go-
vernment has not recognised the Confederate States
or forced the blockade ; and it is urgently demanded
that a man-of-war be sent to protect the lives and
property of the subjects of the Crown. These ap-
prehensions may net be well founded, but it could
not do any harm to let the Union Jack be seen in
the Mississippi laow and then. At this moment
there are three British sailors lying in gaol in the
city, for no offence except that they are men of