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

11111 E: SUN, LONDOIN.I, THUtSD AY EVENING, DECEMBER 19, 1861.

to our ken we must now venture briefly to direct
our reader's attention. It is worth it. We can
promise that much—if only as the latest manifes-
tation of what Mr. COBDEN himself calls upon
occasion, in one telling monosyllable, and without
a moment's effort at courtly circumlocution, a

" craze."

It comes to us, this last astounding manifesto, or
pronunciamento, in furtherance of the principle of
Arbitration, in the form of a quiet little modest
letter, dated " Midhurst, 16th December, 1861,"
and addressed to "Mr. HENRY CATT," of Brighton,
as an apology for, or rather explanation of,
Mr. COBDEN'S non-attendance at a meeting
recently convened at Brighton, and to
which Mr. COBDEN had been invited, a
meeting to enforce the necessity of Universal Arbi-
tration. Now, in the abstract, we are all, of course,
perfectly agreed as to the advisability of always, if
possible, avoiding war, and of substituting bloodless
Arbitration for battle. When the millenium arrives
only, however—certainly not before then—the
government of the world by Arbitration will be
securely established. The advocates of that su-
pernal system, however, argue already that the in-
auguration of such a policy is even now in every way
practicable. And how, in the name of common
sense, do they endeavour to demonstrate
its practicability ? Mr. COBDEN himself
shall explain this in his own words, written
on the 16th inst. at Midhurst. Now observe; he
thus argues the point : " The object of all rational
men and true patriots at this moment," he says,
tf 01,„.1 r - V•GIULLVUL LULU
principle of mediation or arbitration which was
proposed by the British Plenipotentiary and sanc-
tioned by the Congress of the Great Powers at
Paris in 1856. The protocols," he goes on to say,
" of the Conferences then held, which were laid
before Parliament at the time, but to which few
persons have now access, disclose to us the excel-
lent motives alleged by Lord CLARENDON for pro,
posing this 'happy innovation,' which he designed as
' a barrier against conflicts which frequently only
break forth because it is not always possible to
enter into explanation and to come to an under-
standing." [The circumstances, observe, are so
peculiarly apt now —for the inculcation of these
most amiable ideas l] " The question thus in-
quired (writes Mr. COBDEN) in the name of the
British Government was solemnly debated, every
Plenipotentiary taking a part, and was adjourned
for two days to enable Count ORLOFI to obtain
the definitive adherence' of the Russian Govern-
ment, when the following declaration was unani-
mously agreed to :—' The Plenipotentiaries do not
hesitate to express, in the name of their Govern-
ments, the wish that States, between which any
serious misunderstanding may arise, should, before
appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as circum-
stances might allow, to the good offices of a friendly
Power.' " Having quoted which, Mr. COBDEN then
immediately goes on to remark as follows—" Now
is it possible," he asks, " that any case will ever
arise to which this principle of mediation can be
more applicable than the present ?" There is cer-
tainly nothing like making the most of your point
while you are about it. So, evidently thinks Mr.
COBDEN, And he writes therefore as we have seen.
An ordinary man would assuredly have been led by
the exercise of his common sense and by the use
of one or two of his senses, say, his sight and hear-
ing acting upon his name—an ordinary man, we
say, would in this manner have been led to exactly
the opposite conclusion to the one arrived at by
Mr. COBDEN in this particular. Why, the appeal
to arms has been made already—by the capture of
the San Jacinto ! And if Mr. COBDEN must needs'
in spite of that, still talk of Arbitration—he had
surely better address himself to the Federal Go-
vernment than to the British Government. So
soon as the civilians who were forcibly taken from
the deck of a British vessel, from under the shelter
of the flag of England, shall have been restored to
us with apologies for their capture and detention
—then Mr. COBDEN and Mr. BRIGHT and other
Quakers and day-dreamers, who live in a fool's
Paradise of imaginary arbitration, dreaming their
dreams to the occasional tune of riflo and howitzer•,
may talk to their heart's content again about the
universal applicability of arbitration ! What Eng-
land looks for as the one essential preliminary to
arbitration is, the release of Messrs. SLIDELL and
MASON and their Secretaries. When those gentle.
men are again under the shadow of our recently
outraged flag, then, but not sooner, can we really
talk once more about Arbitration.

Mr. BUXTON is followed by the Society of
Friends in the endeavour to gain acceptance for the,
Arbitration Scheme in the threatened difference
between England and America. We noticed Mr.
BUXTON'S proposal at the time, nor do we see that
the Friends have added much that is material to
his arguments. Indeed Mr. BUXTON himself,
though not technically one of the Society of Friends,
may, from his connections, be understood as speak-
ing their views. In all that can be said of the re-
lations of England to America,—those of race,
language, religion, and free institutions, especially,
we all concur ; they are almost truisms ; and the
obvious deduction, that it is disgraceful for
nations so related to plunge into what is almost a
fratricidal war, islittle more than a truism also. In
England these considerations arerealised to the full;
were they felt as much in America there would be no
difficulty at all. The truth is we have, since the
last war, made almost an ABSALOM of the United
"States ; we have denied them nothing; they have
had their way w ith the parent country, till the
danger of war arises, not from the unbendingness
of the parent, but from the ungrateful ambition of
its effspring. We have yielded every thing for
peace ; the 3 have done every thing to provoke war.
Had any one of the great European States treated
England as America has treated her we should
have had war with it long ago.
Hence a conviction has grown up in our minds
that we must begin, in the interests of peace
itself, to treat America as we do other countries.
We perceive that over indulgence of young na-
tions, as of young men, may produce the very
opposite effects to these at which we aim—that
instead of soon finding out that lawlessness must
be followed by soberer habits, the young country
retains its swagger, its bluster, its rude encroach-
ments on the respect due to other nations, till a
check must at last be put upon all this. It will
not do for Americans more than any other peo-
ple, to think that they will be tolerated in taking
what liberties they please with others. The time
has come, thol they should take on themselves
the conduct, with the power and responsibility, of
natural manhood. England begins to feel that
there is more prospect of lasting peace, if she
gives the vast mob of the North to understand,
that she 'will put up with no more such tricks as
these demagogues have played at her expense.
We have again and again acknowledged
tbheattter Americaru claws
has assuredly a large and
who
swagger regret,
of
an d
theeven
detest,
all
this
politicians;
but as this class cannot put down its own domestic
bullies, this la st and predominant class must be put
down by thor e whom they strive to bully. It will
not do ;for, England henceforth to show a for-1

bcarance Rich ignorance and vanity takes for
cowardice, id to make it the most popular plea in
a land who) even judges are elective, that the
candidate's rst act will be, as Mr. SEWARD himself
said, to " isult England."

In this yticular case it has ales ays struck us
that arbitraion is peculiarly inappropriate. The
question isiot, what is the law, but, whether
acknowledgd law shall be obeyed. With the
greatest corideration for the Americans, our Go-
vernment se understood to have omitted many
important 3oints, respecting which dispute was
neverthelespossible, and to have based their demand
on the admtted illegality of the mode of seizure.
The Amerians themselves do not deny this. In-
deed it is ispossible to deny what all their own
jurists as wll as those of every civilised country
consider to )e quite elementary law. Their only
plea is that Captain WILKEs meant to save the
passengers End the mail service inconvenience, by
not seizing he Trent. Possibly. We have nothing
to do with tat. 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
dunara pacirei,by fr..+T? vt,;+l, Am.rirrt 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 suoh 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, THIERS 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. They missed the opportunity—only acting
when it was too late to act. Be, 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. TROPLONG'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 j4dge. The recent innovations promise
well. But how they will work, or whether they
are to be resolutely and honestly curried out, are
facts that remain yet problematical.

LATEST NEWS.

PARIS, DEC. 19.

The lfloniteur of to-day publishes a decree open-
ing the Custom-house of Strasburg for the importa-
tion of woollen and cotton yarns of every kind of
Belgian and English manufacture.
The Custom-houses of Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk,
Valenciennes, Strasburg, and Chambery are added
to the number of those which have already been
opened for the direct importation and clearing of
English and Belgium textures taxed ad valorem.
The Moniteur, in its bulletin, gives a categorical
denial to all the reports of modifications in the
French Ministry.
Count Pourtales, Prussian Minister to the Court
of the Tuileries, is dead.

MADRID, DEC. 18.
The Marquis Vega Armigo has been appointed
Minister of Public Works.
Mr. Schurz, the American Minister, has left
Madrid on leave of absence.

' CATTARO, DEC. 18.

Numerous detachments of volunteers have been
sent to Antivari and Spizza, in order to defend
these places against any attack that might be made
by the Montenegrins. The latter, however, have
retreated.

A considerable sum of money has been received
at the Turkish camp for the payment of the arrears
due to the troops.

T,EU. 18.

It was alleged by some Berlin papers that the
King, in replying to an address presented to his
Majesty at Leztlingen, while on his recent hunting
tour, had expressed his dissatisfaction with the
election in that district of certain members of the
more advanced section of the Liberal party.
The Preussische Zeitung of to-day says :
"We are authorised from the highest quarters
to declare that the report of the speech of the King
to the clergy of Letzlingen has been exaggerated,
and even falsified, from party motives. The King
neither used the words nor conveyed the sense re-
specting amnestied persons which have been attri-
buted to him."

BRESLAU, DEC. 18.

The Breslauer Zeitung of to-day says :

"Mgr. Bialobrzeski, Administrator of the Arch
bishopric of Warsaw, has been condemned to death.
He refused to appeal for pardon, and said,—' I
have done nothing which should be punished with
death.'"

GENOA, DEC. 18.

The Corriere Mercantile of to-day states that a
disagreement has arisen between Garibaldi and the
leader of the majority of the Genoa Committee,
who had voted that the authority of the committee
was superior to that of Garibaldi.

NAPLES, DEC. 18.
Vesuvius has recommenced casting forth ashes:
An official report states that Torre del Greco
has risen to the extent of one metre.

INDIA, CHINA, AND AUSTRALIAN MAILS.
SOUTHAMPTON, DEc. 19.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-
ship Pera, with the heavy portion of the India,
China, and Australian mails, arrived off the Needles
at 10.25 this morning.