The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-10 00:00:00

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redress. But there is no parallel at all. The ques-
tion the New Fork 2imes should put is this :—lf
England and France were at war, and the latter
sent an Ambassador to embark at Stettin and go to
Cronstadt in the Russian mail steamer, would Eng-
land justify the conduct of a captain of one of her
armed ships who fired at the Imperial mail steamer,
brought her to, then by armed force dragged the
Ambassador on board his ship as a prisoner ? Would
Russia tolerate such an act for one moment ? But
the word" Ambassador" implies that he is the agent
of a recognised Power. When and where have the
Confederate States been recognised as a Power
competent to open diplomatic relations by an
Ambassador ? Mr. Laurens was on board an
American vessel—a vessel belonging to a rebel-
lious enemy, resisting the sovereignty of Great
Britain, which had not succeeded in esta•
Wishing its independence. His case has no-
thing whatever to do with the arrest of
Slidell and Mason. Another wiseacre, who writes
to prove how the agents of the Persia respected
the Queen's proclamation of neutrality by refusing
to permit guns, &c., to be taken on board at Liver-
pool for the United States, forgets that the Persia
was sailing from a neutral to the port of a belli-
gerent. Guns were unmistakeable contraband of
war ; Mr. Slidell and Mr. Mason can only be made
so by the introduction of some principle of law as
yet unknown to civilized nations. They were not
soldiers; if they were, it is not possible to main-
tain that they could have been seized, if they were
sailing from a Spanish to an English port, even
with an animus revertendi, unless they had hired
the vessel for their special conveyance. As bearers
of despatches, men cannot be seized and imprisoned
permanently on board neutral ships in which they
are sailing as ordinary passengers. A neutral ship
carrying contraband is liable to confiscation, but
her crew aro only confined till they have given
evidence in the case.
It is the uniform law that when a capture has

been effected within the limits of a neutralterritory,
i.e., within its seas, "the property must be re-
stored." Sir William Scott's judgment on that
point in the " Vrow Anna Catharina" has never
been questioned. For all intents and purposes the
property of Messrs. Mason and Slidell and they
themselves were, when under the British flag, on
neutral ground. "It is the right as well as the
duty of the neutral State to restore it to its owners."
Vattel declares that "in whatever does not relate
to the war the neutral must not refuse to one of the
parties, merely because he is at war with the other,
what he grants to that other." But over and above
all these points is the fact, before insisted on in my
letters, of the special character of the ship itself.
The principle involved in that fact is not only
asserted by writers of authority, but was announced
in the postal convention between England and

the United States in 1848, in which it was ex-
pressly stipulated that, in case of war between
the two countries, the mail packets between
the two countries should be allowed to con-
tinue their service without molestation until six
weeks' notice had been given by either Govern-
ment of the intention to stop it, when they would
be permitted to return specially protected to their
ports. It never could have been foreseen that the
United States would have claimed the right to board
and arrest passengers in the Royal West India mail
steamers on the high seas, or we should have had,
no doubt, very explicit declarations on the point.
The character of the vessel should have rendered all
her passengers safe from molestation. If the flag
has any sovereign right and protecting power at all,
it is in the case of political refugees or offenders
who have sought its shelter. Admitting all that
can be said of them—even that they wers " Ambas-
sadors"—i, e., that the Confederate States of
America are recognized by the United States of
America as a separate State— there would have been
a ground of grave remonstrance had they been
seized on board a common merchant ship bound
from Havannah for Southampton.
"For two centuries past," says Wheaton, " there
has been a constant tendency to establish the prin-
ciple that the neutrality of the ship should exempt
the cargo, even if enemy's property, from capture
and confiscation as prize of war. But this seizure
would put the world back many a long year. There
are certain things which a man cannot submit to
with the most peace-loving disposition in the world,
or if he does submit must bear the scorn of his fel-
lows. No word of war has been breathed by Eng-
lana,-while the air is full of menace overliere, -tt 1
capital shut up by hostile batteries from free access
to the sea, and protected by an army which has
now assumed a defensive attitude probably till the
return of fine weather next year ! The journals,
with some very few exceptions, are jubilant in their
exultation over a new difficulty--some new source
of strength to the Union. The sensitive capitalists
of New York are assured that if the United States
resolve to persist in the capture there is no danger
of war ; at all events, it will be long delayed by
negotiation and the usual diplomatic formalities.
There was no intention on the part of Captain
Wilkes to insult the British flag, forsooth ; he
took his prisoners with only such a display of
force as the case required—of what can the
British Government complain ? In time of
war neutrals may be visited and searched by the
vessels of either belligerent, for in their confusion
the United States' papers have got into the habit of
considering the Confederates as belligerents—of
looking on them as we were unfortunate enough to
say we thought they were some time ago. Such are
ideas hammered on a thousand clanging anvils—a
pin beaten into foil. Capt. Wilkes when he stopped
the Trent by shotted guns knew perfectly well the
vessel could not contain contraband of war. Had
she been crammed with munitions of war, which
would have feund their way into the Confederate
States after they had been landed in England, he,
nevertheless, knew well he could not touch a mus-
ket or a cartridge ; but he knew Mason and Slidell
were on board, and he was determined, coute qui
coute, to have them.

Reviews and reconnoissances and foraging parties
occupy our Grand Army of the Potomac. There are
also disputes to engage the attention of the autho•
rities, and it is reported to mo to-day that General
Blenker, the idol of the Germans, has resigned or
intends to do so. That event would cause trouble
and dissatisfaction. It is obvious that a large army is
going into winter quarters. Long ranges of stabling,
sheds for stores, and wooden barracks are rising up
on both sides of the river and around the capital.
The prospect is by no means agreeable to many
thousands of soldiers. Volunteers are impatient of
standing camps and campaigning of this sort. The
pay and the distress at home are inducements to
remain in order to remit money to their families,
which they are doing very largely. Among the
Confederates the same repugnance to an inactive
hibernation exists doubtless to a greater degree. A
letter, attributed to General Beauregard, which
appears in the Southern papers, would imply that
there is more serious dissension higher up, and men
like Wigfall among civilians and Beauregard among
military men may be inclined to dispute the cautious
policy which Mr. Davis follows in the field.
The non-events of the week do not justify me in
transcribing the notes of my diary. The advance
of the Federalists into the two counties of Virginia
which lie on the left bank of the Chesapeake has
been hailed with pleasure by oyster eaters, and
various mysterious affairs—in which Zo.licoffer,
Polk, Ben M'Cullagh, Price, Hunter, and Pillow
are mixed up in inextricable confusion with Big
Muddy, Wild Cat, and Great Licking—are reported
to have occurred down west. The rumour that the
Black Flag has been hoisted by the Confederate
troops and by the people in South Carolina must be
received with suspicion. The Cabinet of Mr. Davis
would never sanction the act, for they have been
struggling all along to obtain the status of a nation,
and to establish a right to the u6ages of war on the
part of their opponento, atteropt4 to treat their