The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-16 00:00:00

THE RIGHT OF SEARCH.

PROTEST OF GENERAL CASE AGAINST THE
DEMANDED CONCURRENCE ole THE
FRENCH GOVERNMENT IN THE TREATY
OF DECEMBER 20, 1841.
" Legation of,
Feb .
13, 84
the United
2. States,
“ Paris,
" Sir,—The recent signature of a treaty, having
for its object the suppression of the African slave
trade, by five of the Powers of Europe, and to which
France is a party, is a fact.of such general notoriety,
that it may be assumed as the basis of any diplo-
matic representations which the subject may fairly
require.
" The United States, being no party to this treaty,
have no right to inquire into- ,the circumstances
which have led to it, nor into i'urmeasures it pro-
poses to adopt, except so far as they have rN-
son to believe that their rights may be involved
in the course of its execution.. Their own desire to
put a stop to this traffic is everywhere known, ass well
as the early and continued efforts they have adopted
to prevent their citizens from piosecuting it. They
have been invited by the Government of Great Bri-
tain to become a party to a treaty which should regu-
late the action of the combined Governments upon
this subject; but for reasons satisfactory to them-
selves, and I believe satisfactory to the world, they
have declined this united action, and have chosen to
pursue their own measures, and to act upon their
own citizens only, without subjecting these to any
kind of foreign jurisdiction.
"In a communication from Lord Palmerston, her
Britannic Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, to Mr. Stevenson, the American
Minister at London, dated August 27, 1841, Lord
Palmerston claims a right for the British cruisers, and
avows the intention of his Government to exercise it,
to search American vessels at sea in time of peace,
with a view to ascertain their national character. He
adds, that this examination of papers of merchantmen
suspected of being engagad in the slave trade, even
though they hoist an United States flag, is a proceed..
ing which it is absolutely necessary that British crui-
sers, employed in the suppression of the slave trade,
should continue to practise,' &c.
" In a communication from the successor of Lord
Palmerston, Lord Aberdeen, to Mr. Stevenson, dated
13th of October, 1841, the views and determination
announced in the preceding letter are confirmed, and
Lord Aberdeen thus states the ground upon which
rests this pretension to search American vessels in
time of peace : But the undersigned must observe,
that the present happy concurrence of the States of
Christendom in this great object (the suppression of
the slave trade) not merely justifies, but renders in-
dispenable, the right now claimed and exercised by
the British Government,' that is to say, the right
of entering and examining American vessels to ascer-
tain their true nationality.
"It is no part of my duty to offer any comments
upon this pretension, nor upon the reasons advanced
in support of it ; and, if it were, I should find the duty
far better performed for me than I could perform it
for myself in the annual message of the President of
the United States to Congress of the 7th of December,
1841. In that document will be found the views of the
American Government upon this subject, and it is
there emphatically declared, that however desirous
the United States may be for the suppression of the
slave trade, they cannot consent to interpolations into
the maritime code at the mere will and pleasure of
other Governments. We deny the right of any such in-
terpolation to any one, or all the nations of the earth,
without our consent. We claim to have a voice in all
amendments or alterations of that code, and when we
are given to understand, as in this instance, by a foreign
Government, that its treaties with other nations can-
not be executed without the establishment and enforce-
ment of new principles of maritime police, to be ap-
plied without our consent, we must employ a lan-
guage neither of equivocal import nor susceptible of
misconstruction.'

4' You will perceive, Sir, by these extracts, that the
British Government has advanced a pretension which
it asserts to be indispensable to the execution of its
treaties for the suppression of the slave trade, and to
which the President of the United States has declared
that the
American Government will not submit.
This claim of search, it will be observed, arising, as is
asserted, out of existing obligations, has relation to
the isolated treaties for the abolition of this traffic,
which were in force at the date of the communica-
tions of Lord Palmerston and Lord Aberdeen. It is
now
known that the combined treaty upon this sub-
ject is more extensive in its operations, and more mi-
nutein some of the details of its execution, than the
separate treaties with France, which preceded it, and
equally indefinite in the duration of its obligations.
Of course, measures which were not only 'justifiable
but indispensable' for the execution of the latter will
find equal justice and necessity in the obligations of
the former.

" With this previous declaration made by one of
the parties to this quintuple treaty, concerning its
operations, the American Government cannot shut
their eyes to their true position. The moral effect
which such a union of five great Powers, two of
which are eminently maritime, but three of which
have never, perhaps, had a vessel engaged in that
traffic, is calculated to produce upon the United
States and upon other nations, which, like them, may
be indisposed to these combined movements, though
it may be regretted, yet furnishes no just cause of
complaint. But the subject assumes another aspect,
when they are told by one of the parties that their
vessels are to be forcibly entered and examined, in
order to carry into effect these stipulations. Cer-
tainly the American Government does not believe that
the high Powers, contracting parties to this treaty,

Ihave any wish to compel the United States by force
to adapt their measures to its provisions, or to
adopt it stipulations. They have too much confi-
dence in their seise of justice' to fear any such re-
sult,. and they will see with pleasure the prompt
disavowal made by yourself, sir, in the name of
your country at the tribune of the Chamber of De-
puties, of any intentions' of this nature. But were
it otherwise, and, were it possible, they might be de-
ceived in this confident expectation, that would
not alter in one tittle their course of action. Their
duty would be the same, and the same" would be
their determination to fulfil it. They would prepare
themselves, with apprehension indeed, bt.t without
dismay—with regret, but with firmness, for one of
those desperate struggles which have sometimes oc-
curred. in the history of the world, but where a
just cause*and the favour of Providence has given
strength to comparative weakness, and enabled it to
break down the pride of power.
" But I have already said the United States do not
fear that any such united attempt will be made
upon their independence. What, however, they
may reasonably' fear, and what they do fear
is, that in the execution of this treaty measures will
be taken which they must resist. How far the
acts of one of the parties, putting its construction
upon its own duties, and upon the obligations of its
co-contractors, may involve these in any unlooked for
consequences, either by the adoption of similar mea-
sures or by their rejection, I do not presume to judge.
Certain it is, however, that if the fact and the princi-
ple advanced by Lord Aberdeen are correct—that
these treaties for the abolition of the slave trade
cannot be executed without forcibly boarding Ame-
rican ships at sea in tii; of peace, and that the ob-
ligations created by them confer not only the right
thus to violate the American flag, but make this
measure a duty—then it is also a duty of France to
pursue the same course. Should she put this -con-.1
struction upon her obligations, it is obvious the
United States must do to her as they will do to Eng-
land, if she persist in this attack upon their indepen-
dence. Should she not, it does not become me to inves-
tigate the nature of her position with respect to one
of her associates, whose opinion concerning their re-
lative duties would be so widely different from their
Own. But I may express the hope that the Govern-
ment of his Majesty, before ratifying this treaty, will
examine maturely the pretensions asserted by one of
the parties, and see how these can be reconciled, not
only with the honour and interest of the United States,
but with the received principles of the great maritime
cede of nations, I may make this appeal with the more
confidence from the relations subsisting between
France and the United States, from a community of
interest in the liberty of the seas, from a community
of opinion respecting the principles which guard it,
and from a community in danger, should it ever be
menaced by the ambition of any maritime power.
" It appaars to me, Sir, that in asking the attention
of his Majesty's Govermnent to the subject of the
quintuple treaty, with a view to its reconsideration, I
am requesting nothing on the part of the United
States inconsistent with the duties of France to other
Powers, If, during the course of discussions upon
this treaty, preparatory to the arrangement of its pro-
visions, ngland had asserted to the other parties the
pretension she now asserts to the United States, as
a necessary consequence of its obligations, I cannot
be wrong in presuming that France would not have
signed it without guarding against this impending
difficulty. The views of England are now disclosed
to you, but fortunately before its ratificatioe ; and
this change of circumstances may well justify the
French Government in interposing such a remedy as
it may think is demanded by the greater interests in-
volved in this question.

"As to the- treaties of 1831 and 1833, between
France and Great Britain, for the suppression of the
slave trade, I do not consider it my duty to advert to
their stipulations. Their obligations upon the con-
tracting parties, whatever these may be, are now
complete: and it is for my Government alone to de-
termine what measures the United States ought to take
to avert the consequences with which they are threat-
ened by the construction which one of the parties has
given to these instruments.
"I have the honour to transmit herewith a copy of
the message of the President of the United States to
Congress, in December last, and of the annual docu-
ments which accompanied it. Among the latter will
be found the correspondence between the British Se-
cretaries of State and Mr. Stevenson upon the subject
herein referred to. From these you will learn the
respective views of the American and British Go-
vernments.

"It is proper for me to add, that this communica-
tion has been made without any instructions from the
United States. I have considered this case as one in
which an American representative to a foreign power
should act without awaiting the orders of his Govern-
ment. I have presumed, in the views I have sub-
mitted to you, that I express the feelings of the
American Govermnent and people. If in this I have
deceived myself, the responsibility will be mine. As
soon as I can receive despatches from the United
States, in answer to my communications, I shall be
enabled to declare to you either that my conduct has
been approved by the President, or that my mission is
terminated.

"I avail myself of this occasion to renew to your
Excellency the assurances of my very high and dis-
tinguished consideration. " L. CASS.
" His Bxcellency M. Guizot, Minister
for Foreign Affairs."

CONTAGION AND QUARANTINE
(From the Medical Gazette.)

We marvel much at the tone and temper with
which this controversy has been too generally con-
ducted. A certain class of pathologists have imbibed
a sort of instinctive horror at the notion of contagion.
They have considered it as beneath the dignity of a
scientific man to acknowledge such an influence.
They have reasoned as if there were some confession
of intellectual superiority attached to the holding of
such an opinion, and an emancipation from vulgar
prejudices in the avowal of anti-contagious notions.
uch men would, we sincerely believe, experience a
sense of shame in acknowledging the doetri:;e of in-
fectious agency. That such feelings as these do exist
widely throughout the world, more, perhaps, on the
Continent than here, we are well convinced, and it is
hard to account for such a circumstance. There
seems nothing, per se, very revolting to common
sense in the notion that the secretions of the body, in
certain disorders, throw off emanations which, re-
ceived into the lungs, and impregnating the blood of
another person, should produce in him a like disease.
Yet the great aim and object of certain parties has
been to disavow such a principle, wherever, by any
ingenuity, it was possible to adopt some other expla-
nation,—never to admit such a doctrine except as a
last resort in aetiological difficulty, and then to throw
all possible discredit upon it.
The doctrin9 of a contagious and infectious quality
is conceded to small-pox and measles, by almost all
pathologists, a large proportion of whom are ready
to extend the same attributes to scarlet-fever and
hooping-cough. Very many draw their line of de-
marcation here, and, like Falstaff with his ragged re-
giment, refuse to march a step further with the con-
tagionists. A certain number, however, are content
to include typhus fever, puerperal peritonitis, and the
Egyptian plague, in the category of contagious mala-
dies. From this point the non-contents have it pretty
much their own way. The doctrine of a contagious
quality inherent in the morbid secretions of cholera, of
yellow fever,of erysipelas, and of influenza, makes some
of them perfectly frantic, while the suggestion that
perhaps the secretions may be similarly endowed in
cases of phthisis pulmonalis, croup, or dysentery, is'
met with a look of ineffable contempt, mixed with pity.
It has always appeared to us that the doctrine of
contagion and infection hag been viewed by medical
writers in too isolated a manner; that to arrive at cor-
rect conclusions on the subject, capable of any wide
application in nature, we should commence with the
simplest form of diseased secretion capable of com-
munication from one individual to another of the same
species, and trace the doctrine up to the more aggra-
vated forms of disease.

Entertaining these general impressions on the sub-
ject of contagion and infection, as applicable to va-
rious acute diseases where the secretions of the body
are palpably affected, it -cannot be a matter of sur-
prise that we are strenuous supporters of the conta-
gious nature of the Turkish plague. If ever a disease,
existed calculated, a priori, to throw off contagious'
emanations, this is it. It is a peracute form of fever
of most malignant character, rapidly affecting the
nervous and circulating systems, and curiously alter-
ing the coagulable and other qualities of the blood.
One argument of the anti. contagionist party is, that
plague is not found to spread on the European Con-
tinent,
though commercial iAtercourse with Egypt
augments annually. Historical facts, however, are
opposed to this statement. Plague spread at Mar-
seilles in 1720, at Moscow in 1770, at Malta in 1813,
in the lonian Islands in 1818.

While we thus acknowledge our firm belief
in the contagious qualities of the secretions that
form in persons labouring under Turkish
plague, and our equally strong conviction
that the clothes, and bedding, and bed-furniture,
of plague patients, may sometimes harbour such dis-
eased secretions, and renew the disorder after a certain
interval, either in the same or in a distant locality,
we are perfectly ready to admit that.the Quarantine
laws, as now administered in the Mediterranean, are
framed upon very mistaken views of the laws of
pestilential contagion. The shortness of the incuba-
tive stage is not considered. The almost total impos-
sibility that merchandise could be packed by persons
in a condition calculated to throw off contagious
emanations, seems utterly neglected. The practical
inference deducible from the fact that the crew of a
merchant ship remains free from disease for a period
exceeding ten days, appears an element in the calcula-
tions of Quarantine law-givers wholly and most un-
accountably left out of consideration.

We earnestly hope that the British Government
will be induced to take some efficient steps towards
the reform of the Quarantine regulations now in force
throughout the Mediterranean. That the period of
sanatory surveillance might be lessened in all cases,
with perfect safety, we entertain not the smallest
doubt. That the period should he the same in steam
and sailing vessels appears a wanton trifling with
valuable time. • -

No isolated measures for the reform of Quarantine
laws, however, can be of any avail. To be effective,
the subject must be taken up as a measure of inter-
national policy, and carried out with entire acquies-
cence on the part of all the chief Mediterranean
powers. The British Government, however, might
well initiate the proceeding, and congresses have been
held on matters of- less pressing necessity. We con-
clude,— therefore, by heartily commending to Sir
Robert Peel, when he has carried through his present
scheme ofcommercial reform, the great question of Qua-
rantine reform, We can confidently anticipate for
him an abundant
_popularity from §nicess in such an
enterprise. A Gadibus usque.±-frOm Gibraltar to
Odessa, one universal cry of joy and gladness will
arise, when Quarantine regulations are revised, use-
less restrictions abolished, and when the unhappy
prisoner in the Lazaretto can console himself
with the reflection, that reason and science have li-
mited his durance to the shortest; period compatible
with national security.

IMPORTANT TO DIRECTORS OF
RAILWAYS.

UNIFORMITY OF CLOCKS THROUGHOUT

GREAT BRITAIN.

(From Mr. F. Osler's Lecture at the Birmingham
Philosophical Institution.)

Now that railway-travelling has become so uni-
versal in the kingdom, doing so much to annihilate
space, the question of time became a matter
of considerable importance, and he had long been
of opinion that some plan must he adopted to prevent
the errors and inconvenience of every town in the king.
dom setting its clock to a meridian of its own, different
to every other place out of the same longitude. To
show the extent of the evil to which he adverted, it
would perhaps be sufficient for him to state, that there
was a difference of 25 min. 28 sec. between the times
at Dover and Falmouth ; that is to say, when it was
noon at Falmouth it was 25 min. 28 sec. past noon at
Dover. There was nearly a minute difference in
time between the east and west of London, and about
a quarter of a minute difference between the east and
west of Birmingham. The railroad directors had en-
deavoured to remedy this defect by keeping London
time at all their stations ; but there was this greatin-
convenience attending it, that all persons who resided
west of London were in great danger of being too late
for the trains. On all , the time-tables of the
Great Western Railway an endeavour Was made
to remedy this difficulty by printing the cor-
rection for longitude. It occurred to him a year
or two ago, that it would be a very excellent
plan if Government would recommend the adoption
of one uniform time throughout the kingdom ;
and he was happy to find that his friend
Mr. Dent had turned his attention to the same sub-
ject, and he quite agreed w him that they ought to
adopt one meridian as a universal standard, and call
it " British time." Happening to mention this sub-
ject to his friend, Mr. Rowland Hill, as a matter of
some importance in connection with the Post-office
department, he informed hiin that he had received
a letter from Captain Basil Hall, in 1840, on this
very point ; and as it embodied all that he (Mr.
Osler) could say respecting it, he would, with the
permission of the audience, read the letter to them.
the Lecturer here read the letter of Captain Basil
Hall. The idea of the adoption of a general
standard for time throughout Great Britain ori-
ginated with the late Dr. Wollaston, who sug-
gested that all the Post-office clocks throughout
the different counties should be kept at London time,
a measure which he considered might be very easily
accomplished, and which would greatly simplify all
those arrangements of the Post -office in which time
nas included as an element. He proposed to regulate
all the Post-office clocks in the kingdom by means of
the time brought from London daily by the mail-
coach chronometers ; and he had no doubt that, ere-
cngf all the town clocks, and, eventually, all the
ocks and watches of private persons, would fall iryto
the same course of regulation ; so that only one ex-
pression of time would prevail over the country, and
every clock and watch indicate by its hands the same
'hour and minute at the same moment of absolute time.