The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-06-07

n NV IOHk HEKALD.
less than eighty guns, and stipulation that this
Was "to enforce separately and respectively
the laws rights and obligations Of each of the
two countries for the suppression of the slave
trace"-;he squadrons to be independent of
each other. This arrangement does not seem
to have been conclusive to the British govern.
ment, at least while Lord PAlmerston has di
rected its foreign policy. For some time past
our merchant vessels in the neighborhood of
Cuba have been brought to, fired at and searched
by British cruisers, although displaying our ma
tioral colora 1t il supposed, no doubt, that as
slavers are declared pirates, even by our own
laws it is lawful to overhaul all such vessels as
may be suspected of this piracy. But it is a
well settled principle of International law, for
which we have long contended, and is recog-
missed as such even by the English Admiralty
lawyers themselves, that even in the case of the
slave trade, the right Of search cannot be ex-
ercised except by express stipulation; and this
was the theory which gave all its effect to the
stipulations in the treaty Of Washington, so far
as they related to the coast Of Africa. When
ever any Power is opposed to the right of
search-no matter what may be the reason-it
is illegal to attempt its enforcement against it.
This is sound principle, upon which Mr.. Cas-
has taken his stand, and which will be main
tanned by the American government.
1t is really difficult to understand why, at this
moment these very rigorous proceedings of the
English cruisers should have taken place in the
West Indies, and almost in our own waters.
We do not see the occasion for it at all. Par
ticularly do they seem suspicious, if not mis-
chievous, when the English government has it
self permitted the coolie slave trade to an enor-
nous extent, and shuts itseyes at the deportation
of African slaves to the French islands of Mar
Unique and Guadalupe. From the barrscoons
at Angola thousands bloodily captured in war
have already been taken of against their con-
sent, and shipped by contractors with the
French government to those islands, as pecu-
MARY speculation. Are there any British gun
boats lowering in their neighborhood to over
haul the vessels there engaged in this traffic
Why psy such attention to American merchant
men, which, as such, repudiate the slave trade
as frankly as the French avow it? One
would think that with the war il India on its
hands, where the British arms, though victo-
rious and indomitable in the field, are becoming
dangerously weakened by loss of life and the
effects of climate, with the pressing difficulties
in China, and the dangerous indications of q
wor1ika faol;u0 orroso thu ChercoI <hn pr;k;.h
government would have enough to do without
stirring up any i'll feeling against it in the
United States. 1t is remarkable that the only
free nation In Europe should be thus contiau-
ally biting and swapping at the only free coun-
try in America. What good does it do! Are
the English merchants and manufacturers so
anxious TO lose their best friends and their best
customers to please the Palmerstons and the
Derbys-the men who only live for ofice-and
the lords and the chiefs of the aristocratic fami
lies which fatten on taxation and rise highest
amid tumult and war; We appeal from John
Bull in Downing street to John Bull at his fire.
side and in his home against the inconsiderate
and dangerous policy of the British Cabinet,
handed down apparently from one to the other
as the legacy Of Office, which is continually on
the alert to irritate and exasperate the Ameri-
can people by such acts as those of which we
complain. The time has apparently come when
this must be put an end to, pesceably If we can,
forcibly If we must. The principle of the right
of search must be resisted at ell hazards. II
involves great injuries to our commerce and to
the rights and pursuits of our peaceful mari
ners All the negroes and all the barrscoons,
and all Africa itself, are of no consideration
whatever when weighed in the balance against
the rights, the interests the nationality and the
personal honor Of nation containing upwards
of twenty five millions Of free people. No HUI
manity, no English philanthropy, can be better
directed than to the prevention Of bloodshed
between two powerful nations expenditure Of
millions wrung from the gains Of industry, and
the loss of hundreds of Thousands of lives, de-
populatipg their fairest fields and desolating
their happiest homes. A few cargoes of ne
groes, more or less-even If they are stolen and
sold in Cuba, against the common sentiment of
the day-are but dust In the scales compared to
the mischief which false and bastard humanity
engenders Out of such follies, however, spring
half the miseries Of mankind. Let our govern
ment look steadily ct this question; and above
all, let Congress at once authorize the construc.
ton of sufficient number Of steamers to pro-
perly discuss this queaion-if II must be 30 dis
cussed-for the last time.
THE netherlands SQUADRON AT WORK AT
LAsr.--we perceive that three war vessels of
the Mediterranean squadron are ordered To the
Gulf to take care of the interests of our mer-
chant marine in those waters. The Wabash has
just sailed from this port, and the Macedonian