The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-11-28
The Seizure OF the Rebel Rams
In the M0PSey.

sent policy of the English Ministry in the
American question, there is no longer any
room for doubt that they are earnestly in-
tent on preventing the sailing of any more
vessels of war for the rebel service. Two
gunboats have been placed in the Mersey,
opposite Mr.. Laird's yard. to prevent the
escape Of the iron-clad rams. More than
this, the workmen employed by the Messrs.
Laird IN completing the FL Toussaint have
been ordered to desist, and both rams ia
ken possession of by the Government au
thorilies in the Birkenhead Docks, while
the gunboats guard the entrance and exit.
There can be no installing the meaning
of such measures. They have dispelled
the lingering hopes of the rebel sympathi-
zers that the Government would continue
to collude with them in supporting the Re-
bellion. The natural result has been an
open war between the friends and especi-
ally the paid agents of the rebels and the
Ministry. The war is carried on in public
addresses and the columns of the English
newspaper, with great acrimony and, as it
reveals both the baseness and the conster-
nation of the champions of the South, is
full of interest.
The chief spokesman thus far for the
Southerners has been Mr.. Laird, NJ. p,
and father of the builders of the pirate
Alabama, who made recently very re-
markabie speech on the national defenses
of England at Birkenhead, Mr.. Laird
frankly acknowledged that the Alabama
was built by his sons for the rebel service.
He clearly intimated that it was his or his
firms design to evade the English law
He did not deny that the two rams now
building in the Mersey had the same desti-
nation, and by his silence confirmed the
universal belief that these vessels were in
tended to follow the Alabama. Yet he
complained that the Government had ta-
ken measures to make the English law eff
fcient. According to Mr.. Laird, every
English merchant would do well to evade
the English law in order to aid the South
erners, and the Ministry should connive at
the crafty schemes of the English mer-
chants, and rejoice with them that the let
ter of the English law had not proved Of
any advantage to the Yankees. These
views find many warm supporters in the
class, and Mr.. Laird and his
with the Ministry in the House of Com
mons. '.-. I'D. -
Mr.. Lindsay, who some time ago stulti-
fed himself by the account he gave of his
interview with the Empress of France, has
furnished new proof of his astonishing
ignorance in matters OF international law.
In two letters addressed to the Times he
complains that the English ship "muni-
tons of war to a fabulous extent to the
North, while they refuse to supply shipsto
the South. Mr.. Lindsay does not know or
does not choose to acknowledge that the
one act is unquestionably legal, and is adj
mitted on all hands throughout Europe as
atfording no ground of complaint, while
the legality Of the other has been at least
doubted by the first legal authorities of
England. He will join Mr.. Laird in the
House Of Commons in demanding an un-
trammeled right for English meI chants to
build ships of war for the rebels and set
ting international law at defiance.
The contest between the Government,
prudential reasons, if no others,
would like to avoid any further cause Of
irritation, and that portion of the aristocrat-
ic party which demands that the English
law be no bar to the vigorous support of the
rebels, may yet become very serious. The
case Of the Alexandra was to come up for
final decision on the 9Th of November, and
it was generally expected that the opinion
of the former Judge, who decided against
the Government, would not be reversed
II this expectation should prove correct,
the British Ministry will have the grave
alternative Of permitting the clearest stip--
ulations of international law to be violated
in favor of the rebels, or Of bringing the
case before the House of Commons.
Their conduct during the last few weeks,
and the language of most of their organs,
seem to indicate that they will follow the
latter course. We may then expect most
debate in the British Parlia-
ment. In anticipation Of such cOntin-
gency, and it's ulterior consequences, Lib
eral papers like the Spectator earnestly
warn the aristocracy that war into which
half the population is dragged against its
will, and still larger part reluctantly,
would become unpopular as soon as the
burdens which it would entail began to
press, and that public indignation would
II lint
by tricks and contrivances, had involved
in a policy which, as nation,
she repudiated and condemned.
The masses of the English people have
recently given unmistakable proofs Of their
ardent sympathy with our cause, and we
believe that a war forced upon us
by the English sympathizers with the
rebels, would hasten in Eng
land a conflict between aristocracy and de-
and deal fatal blow to the form
EN-. Y. Tribune.
A PRETTY PLOT Fo1LED.-One of the
first fruits of General Banks movement
upon the Rio Grande has been the defeat of
a French Mexican conspiracy (Which, If it
had been allowed to ripen into maturity,
would have been serious damage to the
interests of the Union in the Southwest
AS long ago as the Goth of August, in
leading article on the relations of Mex
leo ana Texas, we maze theSe statements:
'It is known that Miramon, perhaps the
ablest Of the revolutionary leaders who are
by the French, was recently at
Matamoras. His purposes We're not known,
but it was believed that he was intriguing
to bring the border States of the Mexican
Union under the French rule without
fight, by pronunciamento, and we have
been assured that the Governors OF these
States, who were thought until recently to
be hostile to the French, are ready to sub
NIT. General Miramon and his agents de-
sign also, it is believed, an attempt to
bring Texas back under the Mexican flag"
The schemes which are limited at in
these paragraphs have since been I'M
dertaken, and our readers will find an
account of the mode in which they were
executed in the New Orleans letter IN
another place. They were adroitly de-
signed, but owing to the timely arrival OF
Gen. Banks and his forces they have been
foiled. r..>as
Our readers may remember, perhaps,
that the province of Tamaulipas, winch
extends along the coast and the Rlo Hrande
from Tampico to Carmargo, was. not IN
Guided in the proclamation OF the french
blockade. 1t was exempted Tor double
purpose; first, to give facility to the contra
band trade which is carried on between