The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-11 00:00:00

above and other clauses relating to the visitation of
neutral vessels and contraband, in time of war, in
the treaties concluded by the United States is, that
the object of the contracting parties was to pre•
vent inconvenience or the detention of the visited
ship, end the stipulation just cited is intended to
apply to articles of bulk, such as arms, &c., rather
than to officers or persons in the actual service of
the enemy. Where, then, the latter are found on
board of a neutral vessel, by a ship of war of a belli-
gerent, there can be no question of bulk ; and the
captain of the Trent should have delivered up
such persons without demur. As he did not do so
Captain Wilkes would have been justified in tak-.
ing the Trent to the United States for trid but
he, no doubt, preferred removing them and permit-
ting the vessel to continue her voyage in the inte-
rest of the public, as the detention of the mails
would have caused great inconvenience to the com-
mercial community in Great Britlin and elsewhere.
The juetice of regarding this act or forbearance
and good will on the port c,f the Americon corn-
mander as an encroachment on the neutral right of
Great Britain, or of making it the ground of a
formal reclamation against the United States, may
very well be doubted. It would seem, indeed, that
the real wrong was in the captnin of the merchant
steamer receiving on board persons notoriously in
the employment of the revolted States, thereby
committing a flagrant breach of neutrality, and
acting in direct contravention of the injunctions of
his Sovereign. Surely if the captain of a British
steamer chose to receive such passengers on board
neither his owners nor his Government can reason-
ably complain of their extradition by a national
vessel of the United States.

It is novel to see the British Government appear
as the staunch advocate of neutral rights after E 0
many years of neutral policy; and it will be
equally ineonsistent, after so many years of cruising
and so great an amount of treasure being spent in
the suppression of the slave trade, to see the stan-
dard of St. George wave side by side with the Pal-
metto flag for the protection and encouragement of
the demoralising institution."
I have the honour to be,
Your obedient servant,
J. RANDOLPH CLAY,
Formerly Charge d'Affairs of the United
States at St. Petersburg and Vienna,
and Envoy, &c., to Peru.
Cheltenham, Dec. 6.

ELECTION INTELLIGENCE.

BIRKENHEAD:

The polling of voters for Birkenhead commenced
yesterday morning, and was carried on with great
spirit during the early part of the day. Almost
from the first the voting was strongly in favour of
Mr. Laird, and up to midday his majority continued
steadily on the increase. Between 1 and 3 o'clock
a pause in the increase took place, and the majority
was comparatively reduced, but not to an extent
which could justify any reasonable expectation of
the return of Mr. Brassey. At 3 o'clock the num-
bers stood—for Mr. Laird, 1,612 ; for Mr. Brassey,
1,309, giving a majority of 303 for Mr. Laird. At
4 o'clock, when the poll closed, the numbers stood,
Laird, 1,661 ; Brassey, 1,338, giving a clear majority
of 323 for the former. Throughout the day business
of almost every kind was at a stand. The streets,
particularly near the polling stations, were crowded
with persons of all ranks, evidently much interested
in the result of the election, In Liverpool great in-
terest was also experienced in connection with the
Birkenhead proceedings, and all through the day a
great crowd was collected in front of the Liverpool
Albion office, where hourly returns of the state of the
poll were exhibited. In Birkenhead, up to the close
of the voting, everything was conducted in an or-
derly and creditable way, although it cannot be
denied that the public-houses in the leading tho-
roughfares continued to drive a brisk trade during
the day.