New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-10-21
cav. sEwARD-aoxD Lyons.

We think tho deliberate judgment, not only
of cur own country bat Of the civilized world
will sustain the essential positions taken by
Gov Seward in his correspondence with Lord
Lyons, which We publish in full this morning
'sThe saving of the National life" is TIE order
Of the day 10 this country, TO which private
rights interests and enjoy ments, are necessarily
subordinated. The necessity is al unpleasant
one: our lo,al citizens have not sought but
deprecated it; We trust it VIII sOOn pass away:
but If exists nevertheless; and while il exists
we must bear IL, and our foreign friends who
choose TO come or stay among US viii have to
share il. There is nothing more PreposierOus
than the quiet assumption that al the privl-
leges and immunitieS Of a state of peace may
DO enjoyed during the existence of war, and
especially of a civil war so gigantic and terri
bic as that in which this country is nOw in.
vOIeed That the British Government has not
always maintained the doctrines now pro-
pounded through Lord Lyons, AZ sufficiently
proved by the notorious case Of Arbuthnot and
Am5rister, two British subjects captured by
Gen. Jackson on foreign so and bung--in our
! Judgment arbitrarily, needesslS, aud with
questionable justice--uuder martial law BY
said jackson. Their case would, We think,
have justified very stern official remonstrance:
! that of Mr.. Patrick certainly does not.
If il were asserted that the power exercised
by the President in the eases Of Mcssrs. Pat
rick and Raining had been so exercised under
the impulse OF personal malice or other un-
worthy motive We could feel The force Of Lord
Lyons's representations. Bu. it is not pre-
tended that there were no suspicious circum-
stances justiGyiDg the arrest OF either of them,
nor that they were subjected to hareher treat
ment in any respect than that accorded to
American citizens laboriDg under like suspiciOns
of completely with the rebels. Lord Lyons $
dispatch, therefore, seems to US 10 assert an
unwarranted claim of the British Government
to interpret our Federal Constitution for Presi-
dent Lincoln, and to Judge for him as TO the
nature and extent Of his duties in q great aud
unprecedented public exigeucy. We think the
Secretarys positions admirably taken and ably
sustained, and that he has the advantage alike
in Inc matter and the manner of his dispatch,
which we trust the country will read with de-
cidcd satisfaction.
And now word as to arbitrary arrests
without the privilege of habcas corpus:
While we unqualifedly affirm and uphold
the right of the President to make them in a
crisis like the present and deny the right OF
any foreign minister to impede or embarrass
his exercise Of this right, We must again insist
that such exercise shall be confined to cases
wherein the necessity is imperative and palpa-
Die. And we are completely devoid Of evil
dencc that state of things exists, or has ex-
listed, in this City or State, which iustifes any
departure from the safe and regular forms Of
complaint, arrest, arrangement, security for ap.
pcarmce, and trial. Why shoald Mr.. Patrick
have been sent to Fort Lafayette VIII some
one endeayOr TO tell us? 1t was perfectly
right to arrest him; but why not send him be.
fore the regul, tribunals of justice, aud deal
with him according to low We know that