The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-08-20

squads may be sent on; but-slowy, slowly.
--~.-~=---rz--r----~-
Among other questions with which the Federal
Government is attempting to deal, that concern
ing the blockade of the Southern ports is GER
tainly not the least embarrassing. Every body
knows that the blockade so ostentaously pro-
claimed, has thus far proved signal failure
Some OF the ports are guarded with more or less
vigilance; over the entrance to others little or no
surveillance is exercised, and vessels come and TO-
load and unload, with as little risk of capture as
if there were not single war ship in the Gulf
stream. With seventeen hundred miles of coast
line to protect line too that is inersected by in
Vulnerable creeks and iplets, and that has, for a
considerable portion of the distance, its inside pas
sages from port to port it is manifestly impossi-
BILE to prevent merchant vessels of light draught,
from entering and departing al will, or privateers
from starting out on a cruise and bringing home
their prizes. British vessels are constantly plying
between the ports of New Brunswick and New
Providence, and those of North Carolina, and are
known to be driving lucrative trade, from which
the merchants of New York are deriving no
inconsiderable benefit. 1t is remarked, in that
British North American provinces, and with the
British, Dutch, and DanishWest Indies, has largely
increased of late; that $4,000 barrels of -four,
$4,000 lbs. of butter together with consider
able quantities Of leather iron, and manufactured
articles, were shipped from New York to the West
India and North American dependencies above
mentioned during the first week in the present
month. We learn, moreover, that vessels are
freighted at st. Johns, New Brunswick, with tin
plate, quicksilver, and other commodities, and
the New York Post assures its readers that these
various exports find their way to Charleston
Newbern, Beaufort, Cape Fear, and the Ocracoke
inlet Of Pamlico Sound. Vessels also have left
the port of Havana, bound for New Orleans, and
have reached their point of destination without
any interruption whatever from the blockadng
squadron. Only last week a vessel arrived in
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia laden with cotton and
turpentine, which must have come from North
Carolina. The few instances in which captures
have been effected constitute the best evidence that
could be offered in proof of the utter ineffciency
of the means used to prevent ingress to, and
egress from, the ports of the South. The
Federal Government virtually acknowledges
this by undertaking TO obstruct the channels of
Southern rivers and harbors with sloops and oys-
ter boats, loaded with sone-a proceeding which
it may possibly find out before long, to be in con-
trayenton of the rights ofneutral maritime powers.
The New York Post, as if conscious that the
blockade will not hold good, when tested by the
law that governs such cases between nations,
would have the world to understand that the shut
ing up of certain Southern ports of entry by the
Government ''s not blockade in the technical
'sense of international law, but a municipal regu-
'lation"-a mere matter of ''internal police
with which other nations have nothing to do, and
against which they have no right to protest.
The stationing of war vessels off the Southern
ports, we are told, is simply ''to prevent them
"from being used as ports of entry" They are
nothing more than ''the armed police of these
"harbors." A shalower subterfuge was never
attempted The Government has officially mott
fed Lord Lyons and other foreign ministers, that
the ports in question are blockaded. The officer
in command of the blockading squadron gave
similar notice to the captains of vessels at that
time loading in Southern ports, and ordered
them to leave within a certain number of days or
take the risk of seizure if they failed to comply
therefore, bound by the laws that regulate
blockades. If the blockade were legitimate
and eifectual, no nterposition of foreign powers
would be admissible; but who can doubt
the right of England or France, or of any
other nation interested in the matter to refuse to
recognize blockade which, with respect to many
of the Southern ports, is only partially operative,
and with respect to others, is no blockade at all
II would appear, moreover, that there is another
point in relation to this subject which has yet to
be settled. Whilst Garbaldi was driving the Nea-
politans from Sicily, an American vessel was cap
tured in Neapolitan waters for violating the block
ade which had been declared against the Sican |
ports. 1t was stated at the time has frequently |
been reiterated since in the English and American
journals and has never been denied by the Adj |
mlnistration at Washington, that the position |
taken by our Minister to Naples-Mr. CHANDLER |
In relation to the seizure was, ''that the Nea-
"politan Government could not blockade its own |
ports" and that this was held to be correct |
law, and the vessel was released accordingly. |
Indeed, this very case is cited in connection with |
the present blockade by the Liverpool Mercury in |
an article which we republished on Saturday |
last. Its charge is, that the Federal authori-
ties Care now doing to their opn ports what
''they only lately declared the Sicilians had no
Fright to do" The question, then, which the
Government may be called upon to meet is
Whether it can blockade its own ports?' Fit has
already denied the right ofNaples to do so in case
exactly similar, how can it hope to hold successfully
different ground, that the tables are turned?
The double aspect thus given TO the question of
blockade places the Administration in position
rom which there appears to be no means of extri
cation; for if it escape one horn of the dilemma,
t will find itself mpaled on the other. The
blockade has been officially announced. To be
awful, 1t must be efectual. Up to this time it
las not been so; and foreign vessels captured as
'rizes will be reclaimed by the governments to
whose subjects they respectively belong. 1t is
low, however, proposed to Immediately seal up
he Southern ports, both by obstructing the mouth
If rivers and harbors, and by large additions to
he blockading squadron. The first is a question:
bile proceeding, and may give rise to trouble.
he second method is perfectly legitimate as be-
ween two nations at war with each other but,
t is contended that the Administration at Wash
ngton cannot legitimately pursue it without pre-
iousy recognizing the Southern Confederacy as
belligerent.
The statement made in the New York Herald, |
hat General Tench Tilghman was raising troops on
he Eastern Shore of Maryland and intended taking
command in Virginia, is, we are authorized to
ay, entirely unfounded. General T. has no COM
nunication with the Southern army, and knows