The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, tiONDON, TEIiTRSDAY EVENING,

bearance which ignorance and vanity takes for
cowardice, and to make it the most popular plea in
a land where even judges are elective, that the
candidate's first act will be, as Mr. SEWARD himself
said, to " insult England."
In this particular case it has always struck us
that arbitration is peculiarly inappropriate. The
question is not, what is the law, but, whether
acknowledged law shall be obeyed. With the
greatest consideration for the Americans, our Go-
vernment aro understood to have omitted many
important points, respecting which dispute was
nevertheless possible, and to have based their deman d
on the admitted illegality of the mode of seizure.
The Americans themselves do not deny this. In-
deed it is impossible to deny what all their own
jurists as well as those of every civilised country
consider to be quite elementary law. Their only
plea is that Captain WILKES meant to save the
passengers and the mail service inconvenience, by
not seizing the Trent. Possibly. We have nothing
to do with that. We demand law at any incon-
venience. And as we spurn the courtesy, they
have not a shadow of pretext for refusing us the
law we demand.
But, indeed, this very case of the Trent is a proof
that law in these matters is better than courtesy.
We much doubt whether the " gallant" WILKEs
would have been "gallant" enough to seize the mail
packet. All nations having business with America
use these packets. They are the trusted carriers of
civilisation. Mail packets are felt to have a special
claim to exemption from hostile treatment. The
Cunard packets, by treaty with America itself, are
to enjoy protection when other vessels would be
liable to seizure. And had Captain WILKES taken
the Trent to Fort Monroe, there would have been
such a shout of indignation from outraged civilisa-
tion as would have made even a " gallant" captor
of an unarmed steamer look pale. Captain WILKES
would not have been so confident in his interpreta-
tion of" WHEATON, KENT, and the rest of them," if
it had required him to bring a mail steamer before
a prize court. It is surely, therefore, of no little
consequence that the law should be rigidly upheld.
What, indeed, is our security against intermeddling
and appropriations of property from our ships by
every trumpery American bravo, unless his acts
are to be judged of by a competent legal court.
The " gallant" WILKES would have thought twice
before he involved his country in such pecuniary
costs as would result from an illegal seizure of a
vessel like the Trent.

Financial difficulties have always been the diffi-
culties in France. Her history tells it. Nay the fact
has before now been inscribed upon her annals in
characters of blood and flame. Remember the rising
and falling of the funds when a CALONNE or a
NECKER held the portfolio of finance, just at the
dawn of the Great Revolution ! And coming down
to later times, recall to mind the fluctuation of
hopes and fears yonder in France, when, in the
early part of '4B, TIMERS and BARROT afforded
momentary glimmerings, but only momentary
glimmerings, of the possibility of extricating
the Orleans Dynasty from the Slough
of Despond into which it was flounder-
ing deeper and deeper as February advanced.
The astute ruler now upon the throne of
France recognised but a very few weeks since that
the time had at length arrived when he, too, like
some of his predecessors at the Tuileries might, at
will, decide upon so ordering things that a
stupendous danger should—in the nick of time—be
avoided. 7hey missed the opportunity—only acting
when it was too late to act. lie, on the contrary
like a wise statesman as he is, acts betimes in this
matter of vital importance, and acts thus, moreover,
directly to the purpose.

There is a deficit of forty millions to
deal with. And he deals with it. There
is a breach in the strong fortress of
the Imperial Government, and there—precisely
there, in that place of peril—we may now say with
a new reading—

" FOULDS rush in where angels feared to tread."
The EMPEROR summons to his Councils a bold
innovator, who speedily enough evidences his deter-
mination to advance along the path of instant
Reform and resolute Economy. Thither—in that
direction, resolved "to stand not upon the order of
his going, but—to go ! " How well things are now
progressing in the right direction, there in France
since M. FOULD'S assumption of the responsibility
of remodelling the Financial system of the Empire,
in other words, since the period of his Impe-
rial MAJESTY'S daring and volunteered conces-
sions, may now be very agreeably learned
through M. TROPLING'S report on the Senatus
Consultum in reference to the extension of the
privileges of the Corps Legislatif : a report in re-
ference to the suppression of extraordinary credits
by the EMPEROR, and the privilege granted
to the Corps Legislatif of voting the budget
by sections, and in reference also to the
limits to be fixed to the transfer of voted
supplies. The loyalty of the Imperial policy is, of
course, the theme of this report of M. TROPLING'S.
As to that loyalty, however, France and Europe have
yet to judge. The recent innovations promise
well. But how they will work, or whether they
are to be resolutely and honestly carried out, are
facts that remain yet problematical.