The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-02-20

tive advantage to every Spanish interest ex-
cept those of the corrupt and depraved hangers
on about the court This country, or Cuba,
will no doubt incur debt Of three thousand
millions of rails for the cession of the present
rights of the Spanish crown, and this sum, APP
piled to the railroads of Spain and the arrange
ment OF berpublic debt, would nearly build the
one and extiDguish the other. There are thou
sands in Spain who admit these truths, and
sooner or later they will prevail there. The
sooner they do prevail the better will it be for
the true interests of the Spanish people and
the Spanish crown.
The QUESTION OF PRIyATEERING SETTLED
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT OF LORD PAIMERs-
ToN-By our European news, published in this
days paper we have very important an
nouncement of the British Premier, which viz
tually settles the question of privateering on
the high seas. A deputation Of merchants
from Liverpool Bristol, Manchester, Leeds,
HULL Belfast aud Gloucester waited on Lord
Palmerston, urging upon him the adoption of
the principle of exemption of the private pro-
perty of an enemy from capture at sea in time
of war. This question which includes pr
watering, was to have been brought be-
fore the European Congress for settlement,
had it met; but as there is supposed to
| be no probability of its ever meeting, the
| British merchants now apply to Lord Pal
meIston to endeavor to have the principle
| adopted by treaty or otherwise. The Minister,
however, being far better statesman than his
| advisers, wisely concludes that 1t would be
| impossible for the government to agree to any
such policy the very existence of the country
| depending on its possession of the command
Of the sea. at was necessary, therefore, for
that object to retain the power of seizipg the
ships, and especially the seamen navigating the
| ships, Of foreign Powers, for if they did not
seize the seamen of the enemy on board their
merchant vessels, they would have to fight
them on board their ships of war; This an
nouncement effectually disposes of the ques-
ton of privateeriDg, as far as the government
of the United States is concerned, and settles
it, too, for the rest of the world, the two great
maritime Powers agreeing about the principle.
Lord Palmerston thinks it would be nothing
|
vernment to give up its imaginary command OF
the seas by foregoing its right to capture the
enemy's merchant ships and seamen in time Of
war, and our government holds that it would
be equally insane on our part to give up our
right to capture the enemys merchant ships
and seamen. Our ships of war are not suf-
fciently numerous to accomplish that object,
but we can do it by privateers, as we did in
our two wars with England. Our privateers
are our militia of the seas, and it would be as
absurd to abandon our right to use them as
our right to use our land militia in case of an
invasion.
When Mr.. Marcy, as Secretary Of State,
was asked by the Paris Conference of 1856
to consent to the abolition of privateering,
he replied that we would do so If the
European Powers would consent to abolish
the practice of capturing the enemy's mer.
chant vessels at sea with their ships of war;
OF course the English government would not
agree to this; and how strong Lord Palmerston's
opinion on the subject is the reader now sees.
Neither can we afford to agree to abolish pri-
watering. 1t is as lawful and as moral as the
British mode of warfare. We have small navy,
but q very large merchant service and by arm
ing the latter we turn 1t at once into q tenn
porary feet 1t was by privateering that We
compelled England to make peace with us in
the last war; and if we were to surrender this
kind of navy, which costs us nothing, we should
have to build an expensive navy proper, which
could cope with those of Great Britain and
France, just as we would have to raise and
maintain large standing army if we aban-
doned our militia system An attempt has
been made by European governments possess
ing large navies to stigmatise privateering as
piracy, and we are sorry to say that the sapi-
ent Chamber of Commerce of this port have
swallowed this nonsense, and recently played
into the hands of those governments, which
have everything to lose and nothing to gain by
the retention of privateering, which is peculiar
ly an American institution. For the same rea-
son they would be glad to see us abolish negro
slavery. But we claim the same right to pur-
sue our own mode of warfare on the high seas
that we do to continue our own system of labor
in cultivating the arts of peace.
The FREE NEGROES FROM ARKANsAs.-We
give elsewhere the protest of dozen free ne
groes who have been obliged by recently
enacted laws to leave the State of Arkansas,
or, as some Imaginative white man who has
written the document for them expresses it,
"to leave genial climate of sunny skies to be
homeless strangers in the regions of the icy
north" They open with a complaint that they
find the same selfprotectng legislation in
many Of the Northern States that some of the
Southern ones have lately been compelled to
adopt, and that Indiana shuts her doors upon
them, Illinois denies them admission to her
prairies, Oregon refuses them an abiding
place, and even Minnesota has their exclusion