The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-03 00:00:00

MR. STEVENSON TO LORD ABERDEEN.

32, Upper Grosvenor-street, Sept. 10, 1841.
The undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni-
potentiary from the United States, has the honour to acquaint
the Earl of Aberdeen, her Majesty's Principal Secretary of
State fer Foreign Affairs, that he has had the honour to
receive the two communications addressed to him by Lord Vis.
count Palmerston, her Majesty's late Principal Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, under date of the 27th ultimo, upon
the subject of the improper anti harassing conduct of British
cruisers toward the vessels and flag of the United States in the
African seas. In communicating the decision of her Majesty's
Government upon the claims submitted to its consideration)
it would have given the undersigned great satisfaction to have
represented that decision as one calculated to do justice to the
individual claimants, and in accordance with the just rights
and-interests of his -country. He had indulged a confident
hope that the complaints which had been made upon the sub-
ject would have been followed not only by suitable atonement
and reparation, but by an immediate abandonment of the
system of wrong and violence to which the vessels and com-
merce of the United States had been so long exposed, through
the misconduct of British cruisers in the Atrican seas.

This course he had expected, not less from the justice of
her Majesty's 'Government than the friendly relations subsist.
ing between the two countries.
It is, therefore, with painful surprise and regret that the un-
dersigned now learns from Lord Palmerston's communications,
that these proceedings of her Majesty's cruisers have not only
been approved and justified, and the injuries which ensued to
remain utiredressed, but, that a right is now asserted by her
Majesty's Government over the vessels and flag of the United
States, involving high questions of national honour and inte-
rest, of public law, and individual rights.
Having heretofore, in his correspondence with Lord Palmer-
ston, discussed the merits of these claims and the principles in-
volved in them, and presented the views and expectations of
his Government upon the subject, the undersigned does not
feel it incumbent upon him, at this time, to open again the
general discussion, or recapitulate the particular circumstances
by which these oases might justly claim to be distinguished.
Referring Lord Aberdeen to the previous correspondence
which has taken place, the undersigned will refrain from fur-
ther discussion of the individual cases, and content himself
with a brief examination of those parts of Lord Palmerston's
notes in which a power is, for the first time, distinctly asserted
by her Majesty's Government over the vesse's and flag of the
United States is time of peace, on the high seas. In order to
ascertain the precise nature and character of this new and ex-
traordinary power, it may be proper to quote those parts of his
Lordship's communicatiou in which it is asserted. They are in
the following words :
" The undersigned begs leave to sate to Mr. Stevenson, in
reply to the remarks contained in his last note, that her Ma-
jesty's Government do not pretend that her Majesty's naval
officers have any right to search American merchantmen met
with in time of peace at sea; but there is an essential and
fundamental difference between searching a vessel and exa-
mining her papers to see whether she is legally provided with
documents entitling her to the protection of any country, and
• especially of the country whose flag she may have hoisted at the
time. For though, by common parlance the word flag' is
used to express the test of nationality, and though, according to
that acceptation of the -word, her Majesty's Government ad-
mit that British cruisers are not entitled, in time of peace, to
search merchant vessels sailing under the American flag,
yet her Majesty's Government do not mean triereby to
say that a merchantinan can exempt himself from search
by merely hoisting a piece of bunting with the
United States emblems and, colours upon it ; that
which her Majesty's Government mean is, that the
rights of the United States' flag exempt a vessel from
search when that vessel is provided with papers en-
titling her to wear that flag, and proving her to be United
States property, and navigated according to law." And again :
" The cruisers employed by her Majesty's Government for the
suppression of the slave trade, must ascertain, by the inspec-
tion of the papers, the nationality of vessels met with by them
under circumstances which justify a suspicion that such vessels
• are engaged in the slave trade, in order that, if such vessels
are found to belong to a country which has conceded to Great
Britain the mutual.riglit of search, they may be searched ac-
cordingly ; and that, if they be found to belong to a country
which, like the United States, has not conceded that mutual
, right, they may be allowed to pass on free and unexamined, to
' consummate their intended iniquity."
Here is a direct assertion of a rightsson the part of British
cruisers, to board and detain all vessels sailing under the
flag of the United States, whether American or not, for the
purpose of ascertaining, by an examination of their papers,
their national character, and deciding whether they are en-
titled to the protection of the flag of the country under which
they sail. Now, it is proper to remark that the attempt
which his Lordship makes to distinguish between the sight of
search (a right, however, which he disclaims) and that which
he asserts, is wholly fictitious. 'f hey are essentially the same
for all the purposes of the present discussion. Indeed, the
. right to board, detain, and decide upon the national character
of vessels navigating the ocean in time of peace, may justly
be regarded as more odious and insulting, and giving place to
wider and more important injuries than the right of search,
which is purely a belligerent right, and cannot be enforced in
time of peace. But if the distinction was admitted to be a
sound one, yet nothing would be gained in support of the
right which Lord Palmerston claims for her Majesty's Govern-
ment. The inquiry must still arise, whether a power even of
visitation or detention can be rightfully and lawfully exercised
by one nation over the ships of another in time of !peace upon
the high seas. That it cannot the undersigned will now pro-
ceed briefly to show.
And first, as to the principles of public law and the usage
of nations. By these it is expressly declared that the ves-
sels of all nations, in time of peace, navigating the ocean
shall be exempt from every species and purpose of interrup-
tion and detention, unless engaged in some traffic contrary
to the law of nations, or expressly provided for by treaty
and compact. Now, although piracy is admitted to be an
offence against •the public law, and therefore punishable in
every country and by every nation, no ;natter where com-
mitted, it must yet be borne in mind that all piracies are not
offences against the law of nations. Piracy, therefore, by
international law, and that which may be made so by the
municipal law of particular States, are essentially of a dif-
ferent character, and to be treated accordingly. Hence it is
that offences declared to be piracy by the municipal laws of
any State can only be tried and punished by the country
within whose jurisdiction, or on board of whose ships on
the ocean, the offence may have been committed. Now,
slave trade is not cognizable under the law of nations. Al-
though prohibited by most nations, and declared to be
piracy by their laws, and especially by the statutes of Great
Britain and the United States, it is yet not an offence
against the public law, and its interdiction cannot be en-
forced by the ordinary right of visitation, detention, or search,
in the manner that it might be if it was piracy by the law of
nations. That this is the acknowledged doctrine of interna-
tional
law cannot, it is presumed, be doubted. It is so ex-
pressly declared by all writers upon the law of nations, and has
been acknowledged by the British Government, through ite
highest judicial tribunals. Her annals are full of instruction
on the subject. The.following is the language held by. one of
her most distinguished jurists ts— . • - , '
" We are disposed to go abler in discountenancingahis odious
traffic as the law of nations and the principles reeognisedAsy
English tribunals will allow us in doing; but bejond these
principles we do not feel at liberty to travel. Formal decla-
rations hive been madcand, laws enacted in reprobation of this
ptactice, and plans, ably and zealously conducted, have been
taken to induce other countries to follow our example, but at
present with instifficient effect ; for there are nations which ad-
here to the practice, under all the encouragement which their
own laws give. What is, :hen, the doctrine of our ewn
Cotirts, of the laws of nations? Why, that this practice is to
be respected ; the slaves, if taken, to be restored to their
owners;,and, if not taken under innocent mistake, to be re-
stored , with costs and damages." Again ; "It would be,
indeed, a most extraiagant assumption, in any Court of 'the
law of nftioris, to pronounce that this practice, the tolerated,
the approved; the encouraged object of law, ever since man
became subject to law, was legally criminal."
Does her Majesty'a Government now mean to contend that
the slave trade, is contrary to tbe law of nations ? • On the con-
trary, is not the trade lawful to all Governments. who have not
i ignh tt i
mg given eonf
petoacaen,y one.
ofoartlfouln forbidden
rode-
pendent of express treaty stipulations by which the extent of
t'the'an, dsiavceonsteigpuseonftlgonthoerr
'the power to be exercised must be regulated. The right,
then; which LO-rd Palmerston asserts derives no support from
the principles of the public law, but is left to stand upon the
grounds of expediency and necessity as the means of executing
the existing treaties for the suppression of the slave trade, and
without which 'his Lordship asserts they would become a deg
letter. Whether this be so or not the undersigned has no
means of judging, and deems it therefore unnecessary to either
admit or deny it.
The question is not whether the power asserted might be
necessary or expedient, but whether any such rower exists.
It is incumbent dun upon her Majesty's Government to show
upon what principles of -justice and right it claims the power
of deciding upon the right of an independent nation to nevi-
gate the ocean in time of peace ; and this, too, for the purpOse
of executing treaties to which such nation is not a party, and
consequently not bound. The signal error of Lord Palmer-
ston is in assuming the necessity and expediency of the power
as proof of its existence. Was such a power ever before as-
serted in the manner or to the extent which is now done? On
the contrary, has not the right of visitation and search been
always regarded as exclusively one of a belligerent character?
In proof of this, the undersigned need only refer Lord Aber-
deen to the authority of Great Britain herself on ihe subject.
" I can find no authority," says the late Sir William Scott,
"" that gives the right of interruption to the navigation of
States upon the high seas, except that which the right of war
gives to belligerents against neutrals. No nation pan exercise
a right of visitation and search upOn the etcremon and unap-
propriated parts of the ocean, except upon the belligerent
claim." ' And again :—" No nation has the right to force the
way for the liberation of Africa by trampling upon the itsde-
peridence of other Stop; on the pretence of an eminent goqd
by means that are unlawful, or to press tiwardto a Oita prin-
ciple by breaking through other great principles which stand
in their way."
Now, of all the principles ever attempted to be established

LONTJ_OST, MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 1842.

in the 'fist history of the dominion of the set, few probably
could be selected of more offensive and objectionable cha.
ratter than those asserted in Lord Palmerston's note. In-
deed, it is difficult to be beloved that his Lord.hip, or her Ma-
jesty's Government, could seriously expect that any indepen-
dent nation could for a moment acquiesce in do urines
involving the extravagant supposition of yielding to another
the right of determining upon the terms and conditions upon
which it should navigate the ocean in a time of general awl
profound peace. Such a power once submitted to and there
would be no species of national degradation to which it'might
not lead. • That such would be the consequence the under-
signed feels himself at liberty to suppose. But if it were ad-
mitted, for the purpose of illustration, that, such a right was
even doubtful, still the United States, as well as other com-
mercial nations, would be bound to demand' its discontinu-
ance, if attempted to be exercised'in the manner indicated in
Lord Palmerston's note. Under what restrictions and limita-
tions could such a power be enforced ? What competent tri-
bunal would there be to determine upon the degree of sus-
picion which is to justify the boarding and detention, and the
right of determining the national character of all vessels under
the flag of the United States? Would it not make every sub-
ordinate commander of a British cruiser the exclusive judge,
and not only lead to angry and exciting irritations upon the
ocean, but to painful d scussions between the two Govern
ments? What security would American merchantmen have
against.decisions made without evidence, or where all the rules
of evidence might be violated with impunity? Would it not,
from its very nature, be a power the exercise of which, in
whatever form it might be guarded, could admit of no just
limitation? _

The answer to these questions will best show how incon-
sistent with the peace of Great Britain and the rights of other
States the exercise of any such power would be attended. I
But it is unnecessary to press this view of the subject further '
upon Lord Aberdeen's atten'ion. The objection is one of
principle and not of expediency, and is, therefore, wholly
incapable of being overcome by the manner or di'cretion
with which the power might be exercised, or the limitations
thrown around it However softened in terms, or restricted,
it must still be regarded as imposing restrictions upon the
lawful commerce of neutral nations, and an innovation upon
the liberty of the spas ; a power which no independent State
could ever submit to without surrendering its independence
and sovereignty, and disregarding the high obligations of duty
which it owes to itself and the other nations of the world.
Nor is there any force in the view alleged by Lord Palmer•
ston, and upon which great reliance is placed, that the
flag of the Union is grosAy abused by other nations ss a
cover to their "slave traffic. To what extent the flag of the
United States may have been used for this purpose the under-
signed and his Government have no means of judging. That
it has been grossly abused, however, there is too much reason
to believe and deplore ; but whatever this abuse may have
have been, it can have no just influence either to strengthen or
weaken the right asserted by her Majesty's Government.
In relation to the conduct efother nations, who seek to cover
their infamous traffic by the fraudulent use of the American
flag, the Government of the United States cannot be respon-
sible. It has taken the steps which it deemed best to protect
its flag as well as its character, from abuse, and will follow it
up by such other measures as may appear to be called for.
The Government of the United States are not insensible to
the force of the considerations which belong to the subject of
the African slave-trade, nor have they failed to manifest their
sensibility to whatever concerns its abolition. Nothing is
farther from the wish of the American Government than a de-
sire to increase the difficulties, or throw obstacles in the way of
the execution of the existing treaties for its final extinction.
This the undersigned has, upon more than one occasion, had
the honour of assuring her Majesty's Government, and takes
leave now to repeat to Lord Aberdeen. Anxious, however,
as the Government of the United States are to promote the
views of her Majesty's Government on this subject, it cannot
consent to do so by sacrificing the rights of its citizens or the
honour of its flag.
Her Majesty's Government cannot be insensible of the im-
portance and value of guarding the rights of neutrality from
every species of violation. This duty belongs especially to
great and powerful nations, such as Great Britain and the
United States, not only as the best means of preserving peace,
but giving security to weaker communities, under the shadow
of impartial justice. Among neutral nations there is probably
not one more deeply interested than the United States. Their
attitude is that of a neutral and peaceful Power. The con-
sistent and persevering policy of their Government has been
displayed in defence of the rights of neutrality and the liberty
of the seas. Desirous to manifest cordial good-will to allnations,
and maintain with each not only relations of the most perfect
amity, but those of a commercial character, upon the basis of
a fair, equal, and just reciprocity, the United States will con-
tinue to give to their system of policy a sincere and steady
adherence. Upon this basis, the relations between Great
Britain and the United States, as well as all other nations, can
alone be expected to confines.. The undersigned, therefore, is
happy to see in these relations, as well as the justice of her
Majesty's Government and the firmness of his own, the best
reason to expect not only an abandonment of the power which
is now asserted, with the whole system of .vexatious interrup-
tion and surveillance to which the vessels and commerce of the
United States have been subjected, but the future relations of
the two countries placed upon the solid foundation of mutual
interest and comity, and a more enlarged and liberal policy.
These are the views which the undersigned has deemed it
hisduty to submit to Lord Aberdeen's consideration, upon the
doctrines contained in Lord Palmerston's note, of a character
so new and alarming to national sovereignty and sensibility,
and the friendly relations of the two countries. He has pre-
sented them with the frankness andearnestness which their im-
-er tance merited, and with the high respect due to her Ma-
jesty's Government. He has, therefore, no other duty now to
perform than to transmit copies of Lord Palmerston's commu-
nications to his Government, and to protest, in the most solemn
manner, against their doctrines, as alike inconsistent with the
principles of public law, with the rights and sovereignty of the
United States, and with that sense of justice and right which
belongs to the British nation.
'1 he undersigned prays Lord Aberdeen to accept assurances
of his high consideration and respect. A. STEM ENSON.
To the Right Hon. the Earl of Aberdeen.
( To be continued.)

LOVE AND MURDER.
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

MANSFIELD.` PEC. 31,..—The present season seems to
be peculiarly rife with crime of an appalling cast, for
scarcely a day passes without the report of some addi-
tional horror. ,On Friday night last the quiet town of
Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire, became the scene of a
domestic tragedy of a shocking character. A young
man, called Samuel Moore, which, however, is said not
to be his real name,
.who was paying his addresses to a
girl named Mary Hallam, in a frenzy of jealousy, cut
her throat. in a dreadful manner, and she immediately
-died of the Wounds.

The man is about 23 years of age, and is a shoemaker
Ly trade, being a good norkman at his craft, and the
girl was 19, and &dressmaker. Moore is not a native
of Mansfield, but has lived there about three years,
working for a respectable shoemaker, and having lodg-
ings in the tom n. On the evening of Friday he made
an appointment with the girl to meet him at eight o'clock.
They.met, and he induced her to accompany him to the
shop in which he worked, a small tenement he rented
for the purpose near his lodgings. He .conversed with
her on the subject of other young men following her,
expressing his wishes that she would give them up and
devote herself to him. She, however, said she would
not, and becoming excited, he committed the dreadful
act which cost the life of the girl, and sacrificed his own
to the offended laws. He afterwards went to bed at his
lodgings ; but the unhappy parents of the girl, after
long search en missing her, having found her body, he
was arrested, and he then made a full confession of his
guilt. The body awaits the Coroner's inquest, which is
to be held this day (Saturday).
Moore is a young man of steady habits, and respect-
able character; and the girl was good-looking, and also
respectable.

THE EXCHEQUER BILL FRAUD

It is understood that the final and revised statement of
E. B. Smith to the Treasury is to the following effect :
" That he was introduced so long back as 1820 to
Rapallo, Solari, and one or two of their associates.
That soon after, becoming entangled in accommodation
bills, he was tempted to borrow' an Exchequer bill of
1,0001., in order to raise money to meet his acceptances.
" That a speculation was entered into by Rapallo and
his friends, which, if successful, was to have extricated
all parties from their difficulties. But it proved most
unfortunate, and only plunged them into increased per.
plexity and trouble.
"That apparently it lay in his power at any time to
secrete and misapply almost any number of bills, vi anting
only the signature, and by a simple forgery to turn them
into good and valid Exchequer bills.
" That no person of rank or public character whatever
was in any way mixed up in the transaction; the parties
being himself, Solari, Rapallo, and another individual
whose office was in Basinghall street; at which place they
used to meet and concert their plans.
" He believe; the total amount fabricated to be about
340,0001., but is doubtful whether a sum of 40,0001. is or
is not included in this total. _ _

" He still maintains that this whole amount has been
wasted, from time to,titne, -in gambling transactions on
the Stock Exchange."
Smith, in his defence before the Criminal Court, most
unequivocally declared himself, though guilty, to have
been the tempted party; to;lave been induced by others
to commit frauds and forgeries, from which they, rather
than lie, derived advantage. In the written statement
above referred to he appears to persevere in this repre-
sentation. Now, if there be any truth in this story,
every one will ask, how it comes to pass that he, and he
only, is brought to justice, while all his coadjutors—the
men who, according to his statement, drew him into the
whole series of crimes—are left entirely scatheless ?
The loose and negligent mode of transacting busi-
ness in the Exchequer Bill-office, as here exhibited, is
too obvious to need remark. Not for a few months, or
a year or two only, but for a long series of years, has this
facility continued to exist, by which a clerk in the office
could fabricate and issue bills to the tune of 300,0001, or
400,0001., at his own discretion, and without detection.
It is a curious question—how many millions of Ex-
chequer bills in all t have been fabricated and put into
circulation ? We say, how man millions? For it is
clear that the existing amount of .340,0001., or 380,0001.,
no more exhibits the whole extent of the' fabrication
than the 16,292,0001. of Bank of England notes, which
were in circulation between Nov. 13 and Dec. 11 last,
represented the whole amount of bank notes made and
circulated during the last ten years. It is dear that a
perpetual system of issuing, redeeming, cancelling, and
replacing must have been in operation for the last dozen
or twenty years, and it is a moderate supposition to con-
clude the total amount to havo been from five to ten mil-
lions But, If this be so, what sort of a figure does our
Exchequer Bill-office cut ?

FAIAE AI4ARIg IN A CHURCH —.On Sunday,
during the celebration of last mass in the church of St.
Andrew, Westland-row, some
person inside the sacred
edifice, whether through a inalielous motive, in order to
cause mischief, or from fancied apprehension of danger,
called out that the gallery
was falling. This was natu-
rally enough followed by a rush on the part of the more
timid of the congregation towards the principal doors.
Two policemen on duty oAmido, rightly judging the
alarm to Vie unfbunded, immediately closed the doors,
and thus prevented the serious consequences that would,
no doubt, have ensued from the indiscriminate forcing
of a body consisting of hundreds of individuals through
comparatively narrow p4sliages, and down a flight of
soma half a dozen steps. Confidence and order were in
a very brief spare restored, and the celebration of divine
service was concluded without further interruption,—
Dublin Freeman,

LONDON:
MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 1842.

That the Ministry have resolved to send Lord
ASHBURTON, taking him from the Exchequer
Bill Commission, to which he has just been ap-
pointed, on a special mission to the United
States, indicates a critical, not to say an alarm-
ing, state of our diplomatic relations with that
country. The publication of the Correspond-
ence between the American Minister and
the Secretary of State for Foreign Af-
fairs, on the RIGHT OF SEARCH, comes
unhappily to confirm the worst apprehensions
which Lord ASHBURTON'S appointment excites.
We pointed out, when we adverted to the Ame-
rican PRESIDENT'S Message, the danger which
threatened us on this question, and the com-
plaints of the Americans of the manner in
which the right is exercised by our ship Captains,
men for the most part accustomed to adminis-
ter to their own people an odious tyranny,
confirms our remarks, and tends to justify the
Americans in refusing to submit their vessels to
the rude visitation of such arbitrary police
officers. The dispute between the two coun-
tries on this question has now assumed
a very fbrmidable and unfavourable appearance;
and, consequently, the character and fitness of
the Noble Negotiator for the delicate and im-
portant task he has undertaken, has become a
public matter of very considerable interest.
Lord ASHBURTON, let it be remembered, was
Mr. ALEXANDER BARING, a great merchant for

the best part of his life ;. for many years a Mein-

ber of the House of Commons ; created a
Peer by the Tories, a few years ago, after
professing Whig principles through the greater
part of his career; and at present remarkable, for
an old man, for a somewhat senseless ambition, to
be a great statesman as he has been a great mer-
chant. He seems stimulated by the success in
this line of Mr. P. TIMMSON, and as he aspired
to preside over the trade of the country in imi-
tation of that merchant, he now aspires to eclipse
his glory in pacifying Canada by settling all dis-
putes between this country and the United
States. The motives of the man, we are afraid,
are unworthy ; and the situation and abilities
of the negotiator do not warrant the national
confideme.

The Herald of Saturday alludes to Mr.
BARING having been an American merchant,
and says " that his mercantile services have pro-
voked not the gratitude. but the animosity and
ill-will of the agrarian democrats of that strange
country." Mr. BARING, now Lord ASHBURTON, was
not only a merchant, he was also a loan-contractor;
he was also an extensive proprietor of the 'United
States Bank Stock, that is a partner; he, or
his mercantile firm, was the agent of that
swindling body, and long considered its chief
European adviser and prop. At present
the inhabitants of the Union are suffering most-
dreadfully from bank and mercantile swindlers,
and nearly the whole domestic policy, and most
of the party feeling in that country turn on the
honesty and on the credit really due to bankers,
merchants,and money issuers. Now Lord ASHBUR-
TON, closely connected all his life with one of these
parties as the representative here of such.men as
BIDDLE, must be, on this account, as the Herald
says, unacceptable to the most numerous and in-
fluential portion of the Americans.

Judging of Mr. TYLER'S opinions from the part
he has acted, we must conclude that Lord ASH-
BURTON, from his unfortunate connexion with
what the Americans call the "Shin-plaster," or
" shaving " interest, must be unacceptable even
to the head of the Government. He is further
connected with American parties by an alliance
with an American lady, and must be, on these
accounts, biassed, partial, and wholly unfit to
represent this country at Washington.

Lord, AsußuttroN is•said to have retired from
trade, but no person Will believe that his connec-
tion with the house of BARING, BROTHERS, and
Co., of which his sons, we believe, and at any
rate his relations, are the chief members, will
not bias his judgment. Suppose that house
should at. this moment be involved in the
loans for the different States, which are
repudiated ; suppose that it should be con-
cerned in cotton speculations, and be smarting
under a recent loss of 200,0001., caused, it may
be asserted, by some act of the PRESIDENT, in
refusing his expected, and some say, promised,
assent to a banking scheme—will such a circum-
stance not be expected to influence the money-
sensitive mind of Lord ASH BURTON, and
make him anything but an independent and
impartial negotiator? A man, with the strongest
mind, and of the most straightforward cha-
racter, placed in such a position, would ex-
cite unpleasant suspicions ; there would be a
want of confidence in him ; lie would be unfit
for that particular negotiation ; and Lord Asti-
BURTON is neither astreng-minded, nor a straight-
forward man.

On every question not concerning his
own pocket he sees it in such a variety of
lights, that he never expresses any decided
and clear opinion. He cannot, it is said,
give a plain answer to a plain question
without some limitations or qualifications. He
never makes a speech in which he dues not say
almost as much against as for his• own view,
He always doubts, and balances, and argues
every question as if there were nothing positive
and certain, nothing decidedly right or wrong.
He splits hairs, refines, mystifies, and contradicts
himself. In a negotiator frankness, or at
least the appearance of frankness, sincerity, or
its semblance, to win confidence, are essential ;
and of frankness and sincerity, of all earnestness
and directness of purpose, except to gather
wealth, the mind of this ennobled merchant
seems wholly destitute. All his propositions will
be regarded with suspicion, and the object of
sending hint will most probably be defeated by
the opinion that he has purposes of his own to
serve.

In what spirit can he be expected to conduct a
negotiation ? In that of a merchant higgling for
a bargain. That is the habit of the man's mind,
it is natural and confirmed by long practice. To
succeed with the Americans, the most unreserved
openness and simplicity are requisite. Lord
AsnnunToN, we are afraid, will carry to the
negotiation the habitual sharpness of a
loan contractor. Through his whole political
life, when he pleaded for free trade in the House
of Commons as a merchant, and when he advo-
cates the Corn-laws in the House of Lords as a
landlord, this man has made his political prin-
ciples subservient to his interests and his ambi-
tion, and is alike undeserving of the confidence
of the Americans or the English. He is now one of
the foremost advocates ofrestraints and restrictions
on commerce, a matter in which the Americans
are almost as deeply interested as in the right of
search, and on this ground as well as on account
of his political character, and his connection
with the loan interest, he will be most unac
ceptable to the Americans, and a most unfit re-
presentative of England at Washington.
We cannot conclude this subject, to which we
shall probably recur, without throwing out a
suggestion which may possibly lead to a favour-
able result. Time Americans profess a wish to
put an end t? the slave trade, but they wish, from
very substantial reasons, to preserve their flag
from being visited by our men-of-war. Let the
visitation or search then be made under
their own authority. How ? Place an American
officer, we say, on board every English man-
of-war employed to repress the slave-trade, and
let every ship which shows American colours
be examined and answered for by him? That
would satisfy the hon Our of the Americans, pro-
tect the flag from insult, and their people from
injury, and secure the end of suppressing the
slave-trade by -American vessels, so far as that
can be secured by the employment of our men-
of-war.

We publish in our columns of this day the
first part of a long, and by no means lively, cor-
respondence between the Governments of Eng-
land and the United States, on the subject of the
Right of Search of vessels on the coast of
Africa suspected of being engaged in the
Slave Trade. As this correspondence is en-
gaging a great deal of serious attention in
the United States, and as it will
fortn a subject of discussion in Congress,
we deem it of sufficient importance to be sub-
mitted at length to the consideration of our
readers. The sum and sushstance of the whole
correspondence may, however, be summed up
in a few words. The United States Govern-
ment refuses to allow vessels bearing the Ameri
can flag to be searched, although suspected of
being slavers, and the British Government,
after a great deal of ineffectual struggling, is
forced to abandon all attempts to detain vessels
bearing the American flag. The consequence is
obvious. Under shelter of the American flag the
Slave Trade will again flourish to an extent un-
precedented in the recent history of that de-
testable traffic. The Treaty of the Five Powers
is, therefore, not worth the parchment upon
which it is written. While any flag can cover
and protect a traffic in slaves, nothing but the
progress of African civilization can ever put it
down.

When we extort praise from an opponent we
are sure we deserve it. his abuse we disregard
as the sign of nothing but his own ill-temper.
We can conscientiously say, that " The Sun is a
paper," as the Colonial Gazette, anxious to in-
form its readers of our character, says, " of good
repute, as to the liberal arrangements which it
makes for securing ample and speedy reports
of public occurrences." But The Sun, being

NI ORNINCI SUN

in no wise bound up wild any hum ='
bug or
fraudulent schemes for enriching land jobbers (01
at the expense of the labourers of England,
takes its own view of a .much-praised Scheme
of borrowing money, or selling laud that has
no value whatever, in order to obtain the- '
means of transporting the people WllOlll the -111(0'ii
landlords of England will not allow to live
at home .and enrich their country. For taking''''is.ol
this independent line, which, as our readers- :"..Bjo
know, we took the very next publication after 7'jto
we had heard of the emigration scheme, the
Colonial Gazette takes us to task, and misrepre--'llti
sents our character. - ;
The latter is public, and must 'vindicate itself.= I°9
Of emigration,' the point about which we differ L'lll4lll
from sundry so-called Liberal Journals, and so
called Liberal Members of Parliarnent, we are
aid
not the opponents; but we are decided enemies
of the Government adding to its duties by,
undertaking to apportion labour and capital. ;141
to land throughout the vast dominions of ;I,J
the British empire. Our Government is already ,;(1
notoriously inefficient to perform the immense
duties imposed on it. Our criminal law is a cruel fp
blunder. Our civil law is an undigested mass Of
anomalies and confusion. Our administration'in
all its branches is at once costly and worthless., t.
It abounds with idlers who engross large sala-
ries, and over-worked subordinates who are under-
paid. If any chairinaker's apprentice had at his
first trial, made such a wretched abortion. of a
three-legged stool as our Government is, fur all
useful purposes, he would have been at once
turned out of the shop, and told he would never
earn salt to his meat. To place on such an in-
efficient, weak, and yet costly instrument, the
additional and most onerous duty of apportioning
labour and capital to land, as is now demanded
by some pretended Liberals, seems to us one c.)
the most extraordinary follies that ever
cupidity or overweening vanity engendered.
For the Government, which is so incapa-
ble of now performing the duties impoSed -on :4.1,
it, to seek this additional and most onerous •
duty, is a more mad ambition than ever was
nourished by any of the conquerors of man-
kind,.
from ALEXANDER to NAPOLEON. Con,
ceiving that our Government has already a much .
greater number of duties to perform than it_ can
perform well--considering, also, that the appor. 'l4
tioning of labour and capital to land is no part of, . '•;4
the duty of any Government—we object more
decidedly now, and shall object at all times, to
the Government, be it in the hands of what
party it may, presuming to interfere in any way •
with the distribution of capital and labour.
By tjie Tory Journals a great outcry was made
against the Whigs when they were obliged to
take up the Corn-law question for making that
a party question ; but not a word escapes
from the virtuous- and immaculate emigration-,
mongers at the Tories taking up emigration as 11'
a party question. Not a step did they .ever
before take in "the matter; but now, when it will
serve their party purposes, and may, perchance,
,;;
weaken the just demands of the people for a re-
peal of the Corn-laws, they are about to take. it
up, and a whole host of Weekly Chronicles and :01
Spectators make common cause with the Jour-, ;Ai,
nals of the vilest and most unscrupulous.faction
/
that ever cursed a country, in praising this party ;00
move as the height of patriotism. We are not'
so blinded, nor so bribed, by any particular
interest, and we denounced the emigration scheme
~ 0
'from the moment it was propounded, and shall
continue to denounce it as a sly scheme of the
culprit monopolists to postpone the day of reek- ;I'.
oiling- and the day of punishment. If the mind
.41
of man have not lost its love of justice,. and
have not ceased to do homage to truth, that day. -;."1
will inevitably and speedily overtake them.

We borrow, from the Carlisle Journal, a para-
graph descriptive of the present condition of the
poor of-that town, which the Journalist remarks
is within a. short distance of Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S

property, who is at this moment., he further says,
raising his rents from 20 to 30 per cent. Ityordi-
nary cases, what rent a gentleman asks fur h*
land is to the public a matter of utter indiffe-
rence. It is a mere bargain between two indi-
viduals, with 'which the public have no more to
do than with the price of tallow or hops; which
in general, however, the dealers make known.

We should hold it, in fact, under ordinary circum-.
stances, to be an impertinent internieddling with
private concerns to direct the public attention to
the rent which any gentleman asks for his land;-
but at present, when rent is raised, as Lord STAN-
LEY admitted, by a tax on the people's bread--
when Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S rent is increased
by the bread-tax levied on his starving
neighbours when that same Sir ' JAMES
GRAHAM is a vehement supporter of the
law which ordains this unrighteous tax—
when he is a member of the Cabinet
that has been constituted to preserve this flagrant
iniquity—and when his case is so exact a coun-
terpart of that of most of the members of the
Cabinet, and most of the members of his party--
we feel bound to notice it, and bound, if we can,
to rivet public attention to the individual fact,.
, and the general facts to which it is an index.
Sir J. GRAHAM, a member of the Cabinet, is
raising his rents and increasing his income, while
his neighbours are starving, and starved in order
that his rents may be raised. Sir J. GRAHAM'S
case is also the case of Lord STANLEY. He gets
at present higher rents by the rise in the price.of
food, which stints and starves his neighbours in
Lancashire. Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S case is also
the case of Sir ROBERT PEEL, Sir EDWARD
KNATCHBULL, the Duke of BUCKINGHAM,
the Duke of WELLINGTON, the Earl of ABER'
DEEN, the Earl of RIPON, and probably every
member of the Cabinet. One. and all of them
have raised, or are raising, their rents in conse
quence of the high price of corn caused by the,
laws they passed, and they have been consti-
tuted a Cabinet to preserve. Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S
case is also the case of every landowner who has
a seat in the House of Commons, and contributes
to make the laws. All England is a common
neighbourhood, and every landowner is nog •
raising, or has raised his rents, by levying a tax on
the bread of his starving neighbours. Sir JA use
GRAHAM'e case, who is now raising his rent while:
hisstarving neigh bon rs are obliged to pay him a taAc.
on their land, let it not be fur one moment for-
gotten, is the case of every landowning legislawr
in the empire.
A great question is at issue between thg,PeOple
and the landowners. This statement makes it
perfectly plain that the landlords benefit by the
bread-tax, and the landlords in the Cabinet and
in Parliament decide in their own favour against
the people. No man, however virtuous, is a
proper judge in his own cause. In such a case
no man is unbiassed, and all the assertions and
arguments of the landlords must be liable to sus-
picion. A Corn-law, made or modified by them,
never will command the confidence, and we •
doubt whether it will long command the obedi- •
ence, of the people. We are quite sure that tie
Corn-law they can make will deserve to
obeyed. ~d
When the rise of rent on the one hand, and ,
the starving people on the other, are considered::. :t
to be the two great elements of the landlord's .• ,
judgment, it must be also remembered_
that the starving people are called canaille
by the law-making landlords and their friends.
They are called the swinish multitude, and are',
continually spoken of, and continually treated ae
if their feelings, and even their lives, were of no
manner of importance. 'Weighed against a rise
of rent, the whole of the so-called mob of Car- i
lisle are not, in the landlords' minds, worth a;
moment's consideration ; and the conduct of the
bread-taxers, for many years past, justifies us in
asserting that, if they could raise their rent by" ft 9
starving the whole of the inhabitants of Carlisle,' log
they would not hesitate to starve them. As long,
therefore, as any Corn-law shall be enacted by„,1,1!.
the land-owning Legislature, whatever it may bepi,uoi
it never will satisfy the people or settle the queSitei_ific,
tion. It is in the nature of things that our pre47o
sent Legislature can only settle it by totally abo übo
lishing the Corn and Provision-laws.
It is worth further notice, that while .-.40?111id
JAMES GRAHAM'S neighbours are starving, and,AiliP3°

i raisin
1.11 and
to best:

sufierin
Pation

the ans,
Mouth
howeve

oration,
raising.
must pti
of this
satisfie

because

consi,
could
the hr,
which
neve, tl-
-IRTII
that, lie
hithert(
of hi, st
the laic(
when t

°therwi

"It H
-88 men
L
""r of 1.
and 13
The
the rene
Previous
the anon
Itlittee
14di.ent
lation
J!January
, the s,
'ls trial

A set:.
at B~rlii
' interg
rederi
Princes:

4rratige

" At
,"teneral
rece
ieet to.
*hick t
die has
of his
An
°lller

pret,ch t

rink 01
ZP4nish

IN)°:t4gU
41kUll,
n(4, in

tt-ipen
to„,
thit. -

,ye ";,
li- ,4
n o;'''

be
ed

l's

OS ":
30

Se ,t3d

:11
0, I')

101°
41 X 0
Assig