The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-12-10

might be obliged to call in the police !?
Walk up to tho Post Office, gentlemen, and then
give the volunteers five hundred dollars if tie
HERALD beats you and you have the money.
Or, if you beat us, take the Post Office adver
Using, and perhaps it may bring with it that
patronage which we now "absorb" and which
you so much 'need" But no more foul
language, and no more offers Of gambling bets.
Do virtuous, and you will always be happy,
even If the HERALD is the leading journal.
ANOTHER BRITISH PRECEDENT IN FAVOR or
THE Mason AND SIIDEIL ARREsr.-Wc quote
in another column an important correspon-
dence between Mr.. Bancroft and Lord Pal
merston, which took place in l847, when the
former was our Minister at the Court of st.
James and the latter Foreign Secretary. II re.
fers to the circumstance of the captain Of the
British West India Royal Mail steamer Teviot
carrying from the Havana to Vera Cruz tie
Mexican General Paredez- the United States
and Mexico being then at war, and Great Dri-
tain occupying the position Of neutral. Mr..
Buchanan, then Secretary of State, very justly
directed AIr. Bancroft to require satisfaction for
this breach of neutrality, and accordingly Tie
case was represented by him and inquired into
by the British government The result was
that Lord Palmerston ultimately informed our
Minister that, the matter having been inve:ti-
gated by the Lords Commissioners Of the
Admiralty, her Majestys government had
Informed the directors Of the West In
..dia Royal Mail Steam Packet Company
that they were bound to testify in a
marked manner their disapproval of the
captains conduct, in consequence Of which
the latter had been removed from his commands
and the company publicly AMI distinctly con-
demned any act on the part Of their officers
which might be regarded as a breach of faith
towards the government Of The United States.
This seems to establish clearly and incontesti-
bly, enough the illegality OF tie act Of carrying
Messrs. Mason and Slidell on board the Trent
a vessel belonging, as it happens, to the same
company as the Teviot.
OF all the precedents quoted in our favor
none appears to apply so much to the case in
point as this. 1t justiiies in every respect the
conduct of the captain of the San Jacinto, and
gives additional force to the reported decision
Of the law officers Of the Crown with respect to
Che right Of search, which we published yester-
day.
If, indeed, the British government feel any
disposition to quarrel with this country they
Will be unable to find sufficient pretcyt in the
action of Captain Wilkes, and even had he gone
further than he did, and seized the Trent as well
as the rebel emissaries he would have been
justified under the circumstances; for Mason
and Slidell were contraband Of war, and known
TO be such by the captain Of the steamer. But
England has too many exposed interests at
stake to risk rupture with the United States
3 even apart from the question of right. We
have therefore ample guarantees for her future
good behavior Canada is within little more
Than two days. railway ride of half a million Of
armed men, and has frontier that can offer no
resistance to the march of an invading force
from the United States. Moreover, we have
our own formidable and rapidly increasing
naval ornaments bristling before her eyes. and
she well knows that hostile interference with us
would involve the loss Of her immense trade
with the North. She will consequently, we may
rest assured, be in no hurry to embroil herself
in another American difficulty; for, if she does,
the destiny of her power On this continent is
predetermined.