New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-01-01

7
di.nash Mason and slidelI might be TWO
Rush Quakers on their return from mission
= peace and good wl omong To- MEXICAN
Apacbes. This nay be smart; 1t m'y De emil
peo,ly British: but it ia neither c'poid nor
Just, and the time may come wen orea'
Britain will be told this 10 Language "hch
even o Foreign Minister cannot ailct not 10
bear.
NJ. Thouvenel on behalf of the French
Emperor. does not hesitate to supply tangios
basis for the British d. mand. lie 'ngeerts
that, BY treaty between the Unite2 states obd
France, the neutral flag covers telIlgTent per-
Sons from seizure as con,rabaDd "tbless the
" question is of military peoplo aesaaly in the
&" service Of the enemy" He adds hat /" we
.'CFrancel have never found any difficulty in
" causing this principle to be insered in our
L" treaties Of Friendship and commerce. II he
bad been able to say with truth that this prin'
cip!e was embodied in any subslstng treaty
between Great Britain and the Unled States,
or even between Great Britain aud france, ne
doubtless would have said it, and this would have
been quite to the point. If be couli only nave
sad that Great Britain. in any treniy with my
power whatever, had recognized tbs lni'"''o"
Of belIieerent right, hs would have he'peu TUE
Case of hs ally more than by the most undis-
guised mepaces or urgent expcstulatlons. True,
he could not-the thing being radically inpos-
siLle-sh0w q groundwork OF reason for regard
ING a Confederate Coorel, who might have
been dispatched by JEFF. Davis to purchase
arms 10 Europe, % rightiully subject to cap
ture on board the Trent, while Mason and
Sdell, who had been dispatched in quest OF
every sort of moral aud material aid to tue
rebellion, were exempt from like capture:
but We could be content to do without reason
if we were only treated to Law. But NJ.
Tbouyenel does not even assert that Great
Britain is n party to any such modern llDita'
ton of ancient belligerert rights rs he now
sets up in her behalf, based on special agree
ments between nations which have never
pushed belligercnt rights so far as she has
against the world hut especially against us;
ahile We know-by Lord PalmerSton, apology
10 the case Of Paroles, and by tho terms OF
The Queens + defamation in behalf OF the
Southern rebels--1hat her notions OF ipterna'
tional law were not OF the French type even
so late as last May.
Earl Russell aud Lord Lyons having declined
TO put their case on definite and unmstakable
grounds which should tbeDceiorth be- operative
as well for Va as against NJ, 1T became Gov.
Seward's duty to 20 conduct the correspondence
on the part OF our Government as to bring
Great Britain to definite bearings 80 far rs
that 10 possible. Ii was the old Israel n-Egypt
task-to make brick while the requisite straw
was haughoy and uDjusts withhrld-and We
think he eyinced signal Ingenuity and rhetorical
skill in rGecting 1t. An We seck-all THE
country ever asked-is, that Great britain shah
~ vvuuu u, Tue prlncipies oil maritime Va"
which she maintains aud eniorces as against
other nations. This We have never yet received
nj her hands. The imperfect prcscntinent Of
the case in hand by Earl Russell, not inviting
but rather precluding ans statement of our eide
of it, with the curt retic.ncc al Lord Lyon',
was plainly intended to base the solution wholly
on the fayorlte Bull dogma that
Tho winds and are BnirAiSf lido domain
AID ,s bat BY p11i,slaH sIr,sis"
Tie interpositon Of France, ore-sided and
abrupt as it was. strongly comedies with the
efforts of Gov Seward to take the case out of
this category and place it on a basis of recp-
rocal aud delni.e Obligation. Should Great
Britain ever trench upou our mar me rights
in the future, as she has SO hagrsrty, persist
emily done IN the part, France studs commit
ted. by every consideration of honor and good
faith, 10 stand by us 10 the la'i eAueinr'.
SO much at least is assured ms by to- settle
ment of The case of Mason aud Slldell.