, 1863-01-05
The British Pirate $500,

The piratical craft known us the Alabama o.
$780, built III Liverpool by,Britisll mechan
les, Of British material, bought with British
money subscribed By tile British cotton-bro
kcrs Of that port, who arc mainly the sons Of
her old African s1avers, has captured the
steamship Ariel on her passage hence to As.
pinwall, took all her stealables, and cxtorted
from her captain bond for her value, PAYABLE
to JEFF. Davis' Confederacy.
This bond does not disguise the character
of the pirate. She never was in Confederate
waters, and never dared to be seen of the
coast Of the country to which she pretends to
belong. She has not ten men on board who
Eere ever citizens Of any Of the rebel States,
There fs not n ship In the Royal Navy more
thoroughly and essentially British than she is !:
and the British Government, by exactinr
bonds Of her owners that she should not Be
run Oh to engage in devastating our COM
merce, clearly admitted their obligation to
they were bound not to let her start On snch
conrse, they were equally bound after she
did stait to follow her and do their best to
take her back to the port whence she had
fraudulently stolen away.
1t Is easy to rail at the imbecility Of our
Government. or Of the Navy Department, IN
failing to capture her-easy, but most unjust,
She was built expressly to run away from a1,v
thing that could be sent after her, md is I'M
mensely swift rs we'll as armed to disable Mt
long range any pursuer. The chance Of find
ing her on the wide ocean is about equal to
that Of finding needle in 4 haymow- thou
sand vessels might look for her year without
once seeing her, You hear that she has rob-
bed and burnt SIX Of our merchantmen yes.
terday; but this gives you no clue to her
wheTeabout to-day, nor within 500 miles
of 1t. In what direction she has gone,
who can guess? By-aud-by, ehe runs into a
port far coal or other supplies: but there she
&c at.J f., I'd. -
ique, where the San JacInto would have made
short work Of her if permitted. But she was
warned by the French authorities to keep
more than three leagues from land OF consent
to remain twenty-four hours after the
pirate should have left; so she lay
of the mouth Of the harbor, which 5dsI,
stole past her unperceivea the Inst dark nigh.
and Was far out Of sight on the trackless deep
next morning. And she can lurk among the
West Indies, always within q few hoursT run
Of o safe refuge, for months, p1undering and
destroying our merchantmen and lodging our
cruisers, By the favor Of France, Great Britain
mere accident. If the West Indies should be-
come too hot for her, she can run down the
coast Of South America, or dash off across the
track. Of our richly laden Cinnamon. And,
whether she be captured or not, the British
sympathizers with man-stea1ing can easily and
ed that our merchants shall lose all they hare
ever made of their completely with slave
holding, and they seem to have, by their Gov
ernment's connivance, the means Of making
good their resolution.
: We shall have to bear this for the present;
but the time will come for sending In to the
dollar worth Of American property destroyed
By this British pirate, and asking scrutiny
Of the items. II they are found correct, we