The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1862-01-23

the American people are not satisfied with it
and rate so severely Mr.. Cassius NJ. Clay TO
expressing with Western bIuntness his franl
surprise, that | will dwei! for a moment or
what seems to be its meaning and effect.
What has the proclamation effected How
did we stand before il was issued, and how
do we stand now?
In the case Of the United States, the laws
OF England and its treaty stipulations with
our already forbade its subjects
from engaging in a conspiracy to overthrow
our institutions. The proclamation, there
fore, in forbidding English subjects to fight
In the service of the rebels against the United
States, simply declared the law as it was al
ready understood while in forbidding Eng
lIshmen to fight for the United States against
the rebels, 1t INTERVIEWED TO change the exist
ing practice TO revive the almost obsolete act
of George ILL.,, forbIddiDg English subjects
from engaging In foreign service without the
royal consent, which had slumbercd in regard
to Austria and Italy, for the purpose of for
bidding Englishmen from assisting to main
tain IN the United States constitutional order
against conspiracy and rebellion, and the cause
OF freedom against chattel slavery.
The first effect OF the proclamation, there
fore, was to change the position in which
England and Englishmen stood to the United
States, TO the disadvantage OF the latter.
Before the proclamation, for an Englishman
to serve the United States Government in
maintaining its integrity was regarded hon.
%orable; after the proclamation, such service
became a crime. The proclamation makes
II an offenSe now for an Englishman TO fight
for the Government at Washington as great
as it was for Engllshmen before the procIa-
nation TO fight for the rebels of Montgomery.
1t thus, In a moral view, lowered the Ameri-
can Government to the level of the rebel
Confederacy, and in the next place. it pro-
ceeded, IN an international view, to place the
rebel Confederacy or the par with the Ameri-
can Government by recognizing them, not as
rebels and insurgents, TO be dealt with by our
Government as our Constitution and laws
should determine, but as a 6eHigerent power,
to be classed with the United States (of
which they were but a rebelIious fraction,)
and equally entitled with the United States
to the rights of belligerents under the law of
nations.
No ingenuity cen blind us to these facts:
Before the Proclamation, to support our Gov
eminent was an honorable office for the SUBJ
lects OF Great Britain, and the rebels were
with no rights save under the
American Constitution. After the procla-
for an Englishman to serve the United
Is a crime, and the rebels are elevated
into a belligerent power; and this interven.
ton OF England, depriving us of a support
which her practice permitted, and giving the
rebels a status and right they did not possess,
we are coolly told is neutrality. DIR. John
son, IN his famous letter, gave us a sketch of
l Chesterheldean patron seeing a man strug-
Cling Tor life in the water, and when he
ground incumberlng him with help.
Lord John has taught us the meaning of
RrIfISh patrfrolffy ,1,r--l -
o be In like condition. Let US trust that the j
people will not endorse the definition.
What would England have said to such a
reclamation of neutrality from us in her do |
nestle troubles in Canada, in Ireland, or in =
ndia! What would the English people
ave thought OF a state paper from Washing
on, declaring 1t the sovereign will of the {
#eople OF the United States to remain per- t
ectly neutral In the contest being waged in I
between the British Government
N the one side and the Mogul dynasty on a
ne other, and forbidding American citizens I
D enter the service of either of the said BEL /
gerents2 What would they have thought a
I the American President intimatine with r
Old etiquette that it was a matter of pro- t
,und indifference to this Government which
the belligerents should be victorious, the o
ing OF Dude and Mana Sahib, or Lord Cam
Ing and the immortal Havelock? Or is 1t s
lat the British have become so enamored of c
'oelllon, ay, and OF treachery, too, among '
ler Sepoys, that they thus court our Great n
logul and his fellow-traitors of Montgom- b
y2 n
The queens proclamation strikes not sim G
y at the moral position of our Government, IL
It according to the English press, it strikes VI
so at our right to execute our own laws Ig
Ialnst piracy and we are told by the Lon- I'll
~ ItmeS that VI we venture TO hang, under Ia
csc laws, a pirate who is licensed to plum III
II and murder by Jefferson Davis letters of pc
now endorsed by the sovereiens of I'll
ngland and France, it will be regarded as &C
outrage by the civilized world and this or
nile Intlmatlon comes TO US from a nation ar
10 are hardly recovered from the effects of A
rebellion, TO end which, without staying to ID
the opinion of the world, they blew their te
from the guns. lie
Ii was intimated that the British Canine, ia
re puzzled how to act in regard to the mi
ilted States on the one hand, and her rebel Al
on the other, and that after a OF
-eiul search for precedents, one was found arr
the royal proclamation touching the war
rween Greece and Turkey, and that on We
was based the Proclamation which has TN;
dispIeased and wounded the American La
'ple. en-
.vrp,c,y sin
, 'ANADA' Al
L could not have escaped the Cabinet in sea
IT search for precedents, for we know with We:
at th~oroughness such searches are made. fra
I a very similar state of things existed but for
years since between Great Britain and rio
United States, when the integrity and ur,
TOT OIL 'ne BRITISH empire were assailed by yal
Canadian colonists, and she had occa- 10
4 to learn what In the opinion of the ma
ileu states constitutes the duties of neu- bro
lily toward q friendly natinn unsu.nosa LII