New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-06-01

Fifty years ago, Lord Stowell, then known as Sir
William Scott, used to be regarded in this country
as no very trustworthy judge. To-day, he seems
to be leading and very favOrte authority at Wash
inetOn, being cited with much JUNCTION not only in
the Supreme Court, but in the columns of The
WASHINGTON Unioa His DECISIONS used to be re-
earded by our fathers as little better often than
perversiOn Of tie law of nations to suit the policy,
and to favor the mercantile and maritime interest
of Great Britain. But whatever sins he
may have formerly committed in the way of giving
70 few questionable old precedents, and espec-
tally to an arbitrary rule as to Colonial trade, in
troduced by England during the war of 1855,
the character of the law of nations and on that
ground justifying the whoesals capture and plumber
of American and other neutral vessels trading be-
tween France and her Colonies, all those sins are
more than atOned for in the eyes of the present
generation by the manifest favor with which he
always regarded the Institutions of Slavery and the
Slave Trade and his efforts to extend over both of
tn I'm the mantle Of legal protection. The case of
the slave Grace, in which Lerd StOwell made
vehement attack upon the reasoning of Lord
Mansfield in the famous Somerset case, is
cited with much satisfaction in some of the opin-
ions given to sustain the Dred-Scott decision.
Tie advocates of the Slave. Trs1e, and of its re.
legalizatiOn by the Uni.ed States, make much of
his doctrine that the Slave-Trade is recognized as
an honest traffic by the law of nations; and his au
thorty is now relied uoon to show that the right
of visitation by ships-ofwar is purely beligerent
right and not to be exercised for any such purpose
as the suppression of the Slaye-Trade.
1t must be borne in mind, however, that since
these decisions were made, all the nations both Of
Europe and America, have cOncurred in srigmati.
zipg the Slave-Trade as piracy. by our laws, the
Dame Of piracy and the punishment of death are
extended to the detention and transportation as
slave, in any vessel, of any negro or mulatto not
held to service under the laws of some one of the
States. Now pirates, under whatever flag they
may choose to sai, or whatever apparently regular
shipping papers they may have got possession of,
are nevertheless outlaws liable TO capture by any
body who may meet them, whether ship-Of-war or
private vessel. Let US suppose an American
ship, with American owners and an American
register to be fitted out really for
piratical cruise, but in order TO conceal
her criminal destination to take out a regular
custom house clearance to some foreign port,
and under this to put to sea- in fact as prat
ical cruiser. Will anybody pretend that her Amer
lean ownership and papers, and the American flag
under which she still presumes to sail, render her
any the less pirate, or can avail to protect her
against search and seizure by any national vessel of
any nation in whose way she might happen to come!
1t might be expected that having the external char
acter of an American vessel, she should, as an act
of courtesy be sent to an American port to be tried
but it also might be expected that the sending her
in, instead of being complained Of as disregard of
the American character ofthe vessel and as an un-
authorized interference to enforce our laws, would
be acknowledged as an act done in the general in.
tsrest Of lawful commerce and maritime security
against parties who in turning praes had forfeited
their national character and made themselves out
laws. Now, We apprehend that in declaring the
Slave-Trade piracy, we and all other nations who
have made the declaration have authorized the
treatment of ,layers as pirates, and have deprived
them of any claim or pretensont to nationality. BY en-
gazing in the Slave Trade vessel fores all preten.
SONS to be regarded as an American merchantman.
Those on board her become outlaws aud pirates
and the vessel itsefiable to capture by any cruiser
which becomes aware Of her character. For what
purpose and to VIA! effect has the Slave-Trsde been
declared piracy if not with the very design of de-
prving those engaged in it of any claim to protec-
ton in the character Of American citizens
Then again. as to the idea that visitation is
beligerent rights it not substantially as bellig
erent right that i. is low exercised the c)ast Of
Cuba Great Britain, Spain and the United States
have all declared the Slave Trade to be piracy.
Grea. Britain has made treaty with Spain, by
which that patton has boutd herself to prevent the
importation of slaves into Cuba, and the Interrupt.
ton and retardation Of lawful commerce on the
coast of Africa which the Slave Trade occasions.
Irsteated by the hopes OF great profits, a body Of
,aye.,raders haze combined together TO defeat this
polcy OF slave-Trads suppression, and sgsinst