The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-27 00:00:00

2HE LAW OF PRIVAITERING.

The New Fork, Commercial Advertiser gives the
following as the Northern view of the question of
underwriters' risks and the law of privateering. It
indicates that the insurance offices, even while re-
fusing to accept war risks, will be compelled to
make a considerable increase in their rates of pre-
mium to cover the claims that may be brought upon
them for " missing" ships that may have been de-
, and also by various acts of
stroyed by privateers
fraud and collusion for which the war will afford
facilities. It likewise deals with the question as to
the difficulties that will be experienced by priva-
teers in getting their captures condemned either at
home or in neutral ports :

" It is believed from the history of underwriting
that in times of war this branch of our commercial
business has suffered more than any other ; indeed,
that during such times nearly, if not all, of our
underwriters become insolvent. What effect the
present state of affairs may have upon them cannot
now be foreseen. History shows that civil or in-
ternal wars have been conducted with more malice
than foreign or external wars. Private property
has been usually less respected, and almost every
kind of seizure has been justified. Can anything
less than a similar result be expected at the present
time, when, on the one side, sectional hate as strong
as possible, and all the malice that can be concen-
trated in the human heart exists, and that, too,
when that side knows that it has little or no com-
merce to be preyed upon or injured in retaliation,
while the commerce of their opponents is found
everywhere ?
" With a full knowledge of their liabilities, and
long ago apprehensive of the result of the growing
controversy between the North and South, the
underwriters of the chief Northern cities have been
for several months hedging themselves in by pro-
tective clauses in the policies. They are willing to
assume the risks of all the ordinary perils of the
seas,' but they know well that they could not as-
sume the risks of captures piratically and illegally
made, and keep themselves in a condition of sol-
vency. In times like these the hazards of all kinds
of commercial business are increased, but more par-
ticularly underwriting. Pirates and rovers will
doubtless be more numerous. Some masters of
vessels who in ordinary times would maintain their
integrity become tempted, and shield themselves
from their barratrous acts behind a sectional
patriotism.
" Vessels driven by distress into the ports of the
enemy, though not captured or detained by the
authorities, may never leave those ports with their
cargoes. And here again individual bad faith would
be covered by the shield of patriotism and duty.
From vessels driven on shore in the enemy's country
individual patriotism would flourish and fatten
upon the salvage. Vessels never heard from, classed
as missing,' may be sunk with their crews by the
privateer, and as ' dead men tell no tales,' the
master's protest would not be permitted to serve the
underwriters, and they must pay. It is for these
and other good reasons that the underwriters have
recently advanced their rates of premium on certain
classes of risks, notwithstanding the warranty they
require of the assured that they ' shall not be liable
for loss, damage, or expense arising from capture,
seizure, or detention, or occasioned by the acts of
any seceding or revolting State or States.
" Now, as to privateers. It is believed to be well
settled that a commission or letter of marque'
for a privateer is not of any force or effect unless
issued by a Government de facto, one that is
acknowledged by the principal maritime Powers of
the world. If this be so, then, as a matter of course,
any vessels sailing under any other commissions or
letters would very properly be considered as pirates,
and, if captured, be treated accordingly. Should
the leaders of the present rebellion in the Southern
States issue letters or commissions for this purpose
—aside from the personal peril the officers and
crews would incur—it could not avail them much,
for, with their ports blockaded, it would be imprac-
ticable for the privateers to get their prizes within
the jurisdiction of the courts of their own territory ;
and the condemnation must be pronounced by
a Prize Court of the Government of the captor
sitting either in the country of the captor or
of his ally. The Prize Court of an ally cannot
condemn. Prize or no prize is a question belong-
ing exclusively to the Courts of the country of the
captor.' The Prize Court of the captor may sit in
the territory of the ally, but it is not lawful for
sucita Court to act in a neutral territory. Nentral
ports are not intended to be auxiliary to the opera-
tions of the power of war; and the law of nations
has clearly ordained that a Prize Court of a belli-
gerent captor cannot exercise jurisdiction in a
neutral country. This prohibition rests not merely
on the unfitness and danger of making neutral
ports the theatre of hostile proceedings, but it
stands on the ground of the usage of nations.'—
Kent's Coin. 1., 110,

" The question may be cskil—Will the rebellious
leaders not deem it for their interest to respect foreign
flags, and will it not, therefore, be safer to ship
goods by foreign vessels ? This question may be
answered by asking another—Did any one ever
know of a highwayman, when taking money on the
road, stop to ask the nationality of his subject ? It
is the money he wants, not the nationality; and su
it would be with the Southern privateers or pirates
—it is the goods and money they want, and not the
nationality ; and their rebellious leaders know full
well that no separate State of these United States,
or any confederation of them, could be held answer-
able to a foreign Government for a violation of its
flag. They know full well that the demand for re-
dress would have to be made upon the Government
of the United States, which alone could be held
answerable.
" The Government of the United States could

not, with any self-respect, admit the principle that
foreign Governments could seek their redress from
any one of its States or any confederation of them,
and any attempt on the part of a foreign Govern-
ment to seek such redress through force of arms

could not be otherwise regarded than as a declara-
tion of war against the United States, and the armies
of the New England States would be as prompt to
resent any such infringement of the rights of the
Government of the United States as they would
have been before the rebellion.

"That there will be pirates under the name of
privateers, afloat, is not to be doubted ; indeed, it
is asserted that several have already sailed with
their letters, notwithstanding the declaration of the
principal traitor, Jefferson Davis, that no letters
have been issued. So long as men can be found
who will engage in stealing men, women, and
children, which is regarded by, nearly all civilised
nations as the worst form of piracy, there will be
found men to officer and man vessels, for the steal-
ing of private property on the great highway of
nations, the ocean."

AFFAIRS OF AUSTRIA.
(Front the Times' Correspondent.)
VIENNA, May 21.—The Austrian Centralists still
maintain that the Constitution of the 26th February
will be upheld to the very letter, but it is known

to me that some of the members of the Government
are getting nervous and irresolute. The Ministers
Schmerling, Lasser, Pieper, and Pratobevera look
depressed, and it is probable they are really so, as
they cannot take a single step without meeting with
fresh difficulties. The authors of the Constitution of
Feb. 26 must have counted on the opposition of the
Hungarians, but they certainly did net expect that
it would be rejected by the Croatians, Slavonians,
and Servians in the Voividina, and regarded with
suspicion and dislike by the Galioians, Czechs, and
Tyrolese. What the next few days may bring forth
no one can say, but there is a general feeling that
something of importance is about to take place. Tne
Emperor has still a strong bias in favour of the
Hungarians, and Counts Szechen and Apponyi have
Co much influence on him that it would not much
u
iasn members
e shouldo
olf
the suddenlyCabinet h ea
were
etrhea to
out
t o r
some of
office.the
You were long ago told by me that the Constitu-
tion of the 26th of l ebruary, 1861, was not in
diplomae
mof b
member
ofe 2tohteh
Governmento f Oet o October,
keeping
i ge e6oi, ng with
and es yesterday
rd ay a m
aoknowledged that my assertion was perfectly
correct. Counts Rechberg and Szechen were the
authors of the last-mentioned docuMent, and it is
still a mystery to me how they could remain in
office after the publication of the new charter. No
one here seems to see his way clearly, and even the
Ministers appear to be bewildered. Let any
that
tnpgaerrt wofhtoherliy t
hsVienna take a stroll on
glad i s hi c
nearest the Karnth-
ner-Strasse, and he will have before him a picture
of the actual state of things in Austria. On the
av
iws i
i
glacis, as in the empire at large, all is confusion.
Here are new edifices close to fragments of old.
ones, and there vast heaps of new bricks in the
mediate vicinity of enormous masses of rubbish.
Several new roads have been begun, which at some
future time may be of service to the public, but at
present they are of none, as they lead nowhere,
The Fortschritts of this date has a very remark-
able article on the Hungarian ultimatum. The

journalist, who is completely master ot his subject,
endeavours to prove that the Austrian Government
has no just reason to be afraid of the Hungarian
laws of 1848, "as none of them endanger the eta..
bility or integrity of the empire." In the diploma
of the 20th of October it is implied that the laws in.
question will be recognized, and that it may there-
fore be well to state what they are. The introduc-
tion to them is a formal recognition of the validity
of the Pragmatic Sanction :
Laws I. and 11. Unanimous election of the Archduke
Stephen as Palatine.

111. Formation of an independent and responsible Hun-
garian Ministry.
IV. Annual meeting of the Diet.

V. Electoral Law. It was used in the formation of the
Hungarian Diet with the consent of the Imperial Govern-
ment.

VI. Reincorporation of the counties of Kraszno, Kosep-
Szolnok, and Zarand, and of the districts Kovar and Zilah.
(They have already been incorporated with Hungary.)
VII. Union between Hungary and Transylvania.
VIII. General taxation.
IX. Abolition of villainage and soccage.
X. Parcelling (komassation and segregation) of the soil.
XI. Abolition of the manorial courts.
XII. Completion of the emancipation of the son.
XIII. Abolition of the tithes.
XIV. Establishment of a credit bank.
XV. Abolition of Aviticitat' (certain antiquated laws
relative to the inheritance of real property).
XVI. and XVII. Organisation of the counties, and elec-
tion of the county einp/oyes.
XVIII. Press laws.
XIX. Liberty of teaching publicly.
XX. Equality of the different confessions.
XXI. National arms and colours.
XXII. National Guard.
XXIII. and XXIV. Organisation of the municipalities
and communes.
XXV. and XXVI. Organisation of the districts of the
Jazygiers, Cumaniers, and Haidueks.
XXVII. Relative to the free ports of Fiume and Buc-
cari.

XXVIII. The offices connected with the dignity of
Palatine.
XXTX . The employes of the State.
XXX. Relative to roads, canals, &c.
XXXI. Relative to theatres.

The above mentioned laws are now before me,
and it is only against two of them that the Austrian
Government can raise any reasonable objections.
The one is Law 111. and the other Law XXII. The
speech made by M. von Somsich in the Hungarian
Diet on Saturday last has produced an exceedingly
disagreeable impression in the highest Austrian

circles, as the gentleman in question was formerly
the leader of the so-called " Old Conservatives."
M. von Somsich, who made a violent attack on the
Schwarzenberg-Bach Ministry, thus spoke of the
Con rords4 : -
lam a Roman Catholic, and declare LIAM, my religious
feelings and political sentiments were never yet in conflict ;
but, if the Austrian Convention with Rome were binding
for Hungary, my political sentiments would no longer be
in accordance with my religious feelings: Fortunately,
however, the Concordat is not binding for Hungary, It
does not exist for her, as it was not concluded by her
crowned King nor sanctioned by her Diet.

After the veteran politician had ceased speaking
there was a perfect tempest of applause. The Hun-
garian Chamber of Deputies has adjourned until
to-morrow. On the 17th inst., on which day the
forcible levy of taxes began at Gran, the following
scene occurred. A captain of cavalry went with his
men to the County-house, and inquired for the first
Deputy-Lieutenant. On being told that he was
absent, the captain asked for the county magistrate
( Stuhlrichter), who chanced to be occupied with
eight of his employes. Tho martial representative of
Government did not wait to be announced, but
rudely forced his way into the room in which the
magistrate, M. Julius Andrassy, was sitting. The
Austrian officer told the Hungarian employe to show
his respect for him by rising, but M. Addrassy
, coolly replied that he was in his own room, and
should sit or stand according to his own good plea-
sure. A taxgatherer who had accompanied the
captain then asked for the books in which the
names and residences of the taxpayers were en-
tered. To this demand M. Andrassy replied
that ho was the servant of the county of Gran,
and not of the State, and should not say where
the books were kept. On hearing this the officer
called 12 of his men into the ante-room, and
ordered them not to permit any one to leave the
inner chamber. Shortly after this military move
had been made the Deputy-Lieutenant appeared and
ueetreu cue omens tu cakc away nis men, as it, ""
his duty to assist in levying the taxes, but not make
°tfether,
prisoners of
arptne haaarec t
nl partly
not
4r countyuse .
blows employes.T hfer oum n The son 31
probably felt that he had gone beyond
fory
quarters l
to see her children.
The Empress was so impatientieanindthheiscimtyy.rmidons soon retirehdisto their
mountains.h until the
that she yesterday evening
and must already be here. left
It was Trieste
very fo r
cold Vienna,
anti
ought not to have been
windy, and her Majesty
ihniih a adeserted from
Rhenish Bavaria just
ayence
a ttiha ne deputation
wer°
reached the French
weatherallowed
Three
hr ee
wastio t
a crossa
no r
az:
arrested
congenial,
sti Seegdrt
etysynri
wi
ana
is coming from
frontier. One of
killed by a Bavarian gendarme. It is
tbheefonir elvtahse
Emperor to annex Turkish
tt oh that
C r
petitiono
Croatia. The story relative to the member of the
Galician Diet which was told •
in my letter of Satur-
dayreceived 12
is but
Areglartaetad
hluisckcyonsletigtiuselanttosr.

SOUIIIAMPTON, Saturday.—The steamship Der-
went (belonging to the Royal Mail Company) Capt. West,
which has been employed in the West India intercolonial
service, and has come home for repairs, arrived here this
evening. She called at Madeira, and brings 56 passengers
from that place, which she left on the 16th inst. The Der-
went brings no news, and sroke no vessels on the voyage.
The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamships Sul-
tan, Captain Ch, istian, and Tagus, Captain hall, sail hence
on Monday, the former taking the Mediterranean and Bom-
bay and the latter those for Vigo, Oporto, and Lia-
bon mails, and
steamer Fulton, Captain J. A. Wotton, will
leave on Wednesday with French and English mails for
New York. The Tasmania, Captain Weller, is duo on
Wednesday, with the West India, Pacific, and Mexican
mails ; the llammonia, Captain Schwensen, on ThursdaYt
with wails from New York of the 18th inst. ; and the
Alhambra, Captain Steward, oz Friday, with the Felling'
star irokilfs,