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

men.

A Cabinet Council was held on the subject at
Washington, but the result has not transpired.
A Washington telegram in the New York _Herald
says that when information was first communi-
cated to President Lincoln he declared emphatically
that Messrs. Mason and Slidell should not be sur-
rendered, even if their detention should cause a
war with Great Britain.
From the same source it is stated that the
legal advisers of the Federal Government not only
completely justify the proceeding, but even furnish
authority for the seizure and confiscation of the
Trent.

The New York Herald editorially speculates
on the action of England, and predicts great
agitation. In a characteristic strain it taunts
England with all sorts of perfidy, but thinks
nothing will come of the matter more than
much bustle and ostentatious wrath. It urges
the Government, nevertheless, to make prepa-
rsiadteionnts
tfoo ra
sakl ecmo
ne rggr ee ns
sc ifeosr,
5a no
oil,oc
0a
ol
luopr on n theta eo Par: -d
recommends the immediate carrying out of Mr. Se-
ward's proposition for the defence of the coasts, &c.
Some of the New York journals speak of the pro-
bable necessity for apologies and reparation even to
the sending of the prisoners back, but others argue
in a totally different strain. The New York Journal
of Commerce says it was purely an act of grace that
the British merchantman was allowed to go free, and
that it is far from likely that England would bother
herself • with any complaint from her captain
who escaped with his vessel and cargo from the
fate of which the Queen's proclamation warned
him. Great stress is laid in some of the argu-
ments against that clause in the Queen's procla-
mation which prohibited British vessels from car-
rying officers, despatches, &c., for the service of
either party, and it is asked if British Ministers
in the face of such a proclamation can protect
the Trent in her conveyance of rebel emissaries and
rebel despatches.
The New York World does not believe that the
British Cabinet will make any complaint, but if
it does the American Government can fully justify
it by the case of the American steamer Caroline,
which was destroyed by British officers in 1837.
The Washington correspondent of the New York
7ribune, writing on the 20th, says :
" The search of the British steamer Trent, and
the forcible taking from her of Slidell and Mason,
are fully justified here by all who have made inter-
national law a study. The case is strengthened by
the recognition which Englaniaas so persistently
given to the right of maritithe search. She has
never abandoned this right, but has always claimed
it. Commander Wilkes is regarded here as having
exercised his lawful privilege with a hasty pru-
dence or an excessive leniency. The Trent was
herself liable to capture, and the British Govern-
ment would have found it difficult to establish a
claim in behalf of her owners, after having justi-
fied and sustained M'Leod for cutting the steamer
Caroline out of an American port, and sent her
over Niagara Falls. The Caroline had carried
troops to invade British territory. When the rebel
emissaries reached the deck of the San Jacinto, Mr.
Mason, having added to ordinary F. E. V.'s stock
of knowledge while Chairman of the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, saluted Captain Wilkes, but Mr.
Slidell passed on without noticing him. I desire
you to observe, sir, that Pnicaptain of this ship,'
remarked Captain Wilkes. The hero of Plaquemine
saluted."
The New York Tribune says :
" Whatever complications may arise from the
arrest on board a British ship of the Lord High
Commissioners of Secession to the Great Powers of
Western Europe, it is certain that the faces of loyal
Americans broadened into a universal grin at the
intelligence of their capture. It was the fit con•
elusion of a week of good news—the best that we
have had since treason broke out into rebellion.
Of all the arch-traitors there are no two—not even
Floyd and Jeff. Davis—whose appearance among
us as prisoners would have diffused more
general and hearty satisfaction. Bat what
will Great Britain say to the taking of these
two would.be envoys by force from one of her
merchant vessels ? We do not know, and do
not greatly care. We shall endeavour to say no-
L thing on the law of the case that may ever seem