Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1862-02-01

ffeeu0m ot the Seas, or the right OF ueu-
trails to proceed on their regular business
In time Of war precisely as though no war
existed. Prove that vessel goes out OF
her way to forward the operations Of a
belligeFent, end yon show that she has for
felted her neutral character and made her.
self lawful prize of tho aggrieved party;
bnt so long as the Trent was bound on her
usual and lawful voyage--a voyage not I'M
dertaken for the service Of either belliger-
enl---she was nouobliged to ascertain the
neutral and harmless character Of either
letters or persons seeking to avail them
selves Of her character or Office as a com.
mon carrier Had she gone mile out o T
her way TO land those persons or those dis
patches OF scme point officially designated
on their behalf. she would have been law.
ful prize Of the San JaciBto; but, so long
as she kept on her regular and usual voy.
age, she was not rightfully sntject even TO
detention aud search, no matter though
drzen rebel corseirs instead Of one, and
twenty rebel enjoys rather than t~o, had
been numbered among her passengers.--
This is rase not recognized by LORD Stow
ell or Sir William Scott, not asserted by
Yattel or Wheaton, but IL Is the 0bgious
dictate Of common sense, and will one day
be broadly established and deferred to.
The British Admiralty doctrine that neu-
trsls canuot aid either belligerent without
spA jrc'ing tbrm,elyes to capture aud con-
iscation, requires to be defined and limited
so that the circumstances under which the
service is rendered shall necessarily con-
Tiet the offender Of purposed violation of
uentrality. A British vessel syhiug ont of
Charleston on q clondy, moonless midnight
with Mason and Slideil on board, would
have been subject to impntations and pre-
sumptions which do not attach to the same
vessel leaving Hsvana at high noon ON her
usual and regular voyage to another West
Indian port with just such passengers as
may have chosen 20 hire her berths and nav
her regular fare. This distinction does not
appear in the official documents called forth
by the stoppage of the Trent---certainly not
in the Queens Prociamation-but it is
founded in reason aud justice, and will make
itself respected
Mason aud Slidell are given up; British
wrath may or may not thereby be appeased;
but il is not probable that anything more
sericns than further diplomatic correspon.
dence will follow. Gov. Seward has plain
ly invited both France and England, with
all other maritime countries to ante with
us in settling aud defining tue maritime
rights Of neutrals by treaty, and it seems
hardly possible that this invitation shall be
declined or neglected. Should it be accept.
ed and acted on, the seizure of the Trent
will result in positive good, not to one ma.
tion only but to the whole civilized world.
But We, above all other people, whose
fathers through half lifetime smarted
under the wrong and shame Of fiunnmerable
aud ineessant impressments from our mer-
chant ships of our native as well as adopt.
ed citizens, and who were never till now
able to obtain from the naughty Mistress
of the Seas even an acknowledgment that
such impressment was wrong, will be amply
repaid for oar momentary sense of insult
aud humiliation by The spectacle of Great
BritSin meeting the very FIRST act akin TO
impresSment on our part in spirit and
with demands which convict her of outrage
and inexeusable aggression upon our rights
throughout that long series of years. A
British Ministry has set the seal of official
and emphatic condemnation on the acts of
several British Ministries throughout that
series of years The stronger the British
protest against tho act of Com. Wilkes the
more unSparing the condemnation of the
justified acts of thousand British commo-
dores and captains from I796 to 1919
Let us joyfully agree, therefore, that the
capture Of the Trent was indefensible, and
thereby seal the admission Of the British
Government that her long eouese of i'm
pressments from our merchant vessels was
an outrage on the liberty of Americans,
and crime against the rights Of mankind.