The Portland daily press., 1864-12-29
The Rights of Belligsrents. The Law and
aQ& the Raiders. ~

the Raiders.
At the opening of the AssIzEs at Toronto,
Canada, Judge Morrison delivered yerya
charge to the Grand Jury, portions of which
are interesting to us, and have bearing on
questions that concern our Government.
Among many other things Judge Morrison
says:
1t has unfortunately happened that near to
our eastern and western frontier outrages
have taken place, alleged to have been plan
ned and committed by persons under our pro
lection. Several Of the persons engaged beve
been arrested upon the reputation OF tne
authorities Of the United States, under tne
Ashburton Treaty and the laws Of oar fFov-
ince, with view to their extradinon, Do.ns
charged with the commission Of crimes Will
in that treaty. The case Of one D 0l sn9so
prisoners is still pending bef0re Ine nycoia .a
of this city. The Others sere iecenly us
charged from custody, ander cncunls .ances
and Ia manner, to ssg the least very ,e4srAor-
binary and most prsciPicsale, anu wnicr law
given rise to very pd,n, wava a sssh wsrrsns,
have heen issued for the re-arrest OF the par
Ties and rewards for their capture offered by
the Executive. may here remark that 1t
hos been commended, on the part OF those pris-
oners, that they were entitled to their release
upon the ground that the acts charged against
them were acts committed under commissions
or Instructions from the authorities OF the So
called Confederate States-that, in fact, the
crimes with which they were charged were
acts of war.
Without admitting for an instant that, even
II they were, 1t would form ground for their
discharge, fail to see, that, while the actual
seat of war Is several hundred miles distant
from our frontier, mere incursion of few
men secretly contrived and without the ordi-
nary features or emblemsl of a warlike expe-
dition, resulting In an inroad upon the terri
tory OF neighboring county and the taking
Of the lives Of acknowledgement and unoffend-
ing citizens, and the plunderlng them of their
property, and escaping into this country with
their plunder-I say fall to see that such
acts are entitled to be treated as acts of war :.
If 1t were otherwise, the most monstrous and
revolving crimes might be perpetrated under
such pretexts, and being committed on the
borders Of friendly and contiguous states, as
IN the present instance, the offenders would
escape the punishment that such crimes de-
serve. =
War, as understood and carried on among
civilized nations. has enough evils and calam-
tiles without extending its horrors to murder
and robbery, such as / refer to. As well
might it have been argued during the Crlmean
war, that If few desperate men entered any
part of our Province from the United States,
and murdered and robbed our people, and i'm
mediately fed thereafter within the American
frontier, they were, under the pretext that
their crimes were acts of war In aid OF Rus
sla, entitled to protection, and not within the
Treaty - E.tAa&e
Ones common sense revolts at any law, in
transitional or otherwise, being invoked to
protect the perpetrators of such atrocities and
crimes from being amenable to the laws Of the
outraged country"
The Judge then alludes to the Canadian re-
bellion in 1887, and the case Of the Caroline
These misguided men fed from Canada, ant
in conjunction with some American clti
zens, gained footing for few days on Navy
Island. They cut out the Caroline, which Wa
lying in an American port. and set her o.
s--1--sS'rs--0ss f1sSif a violation O
American soil, and Judge Morrison says i
was indicated by his Government on tn,
ground of selfpreservation, and had it moi
been for the good sense OF the two Govern
ments, the two nations might have beer
plunged into all the calamities of war.
he refers to this case for the purpose o
showing from their own experience how pro.
voking and irritating to the American people
must be outrages like the one perpetrated
at st. Adams. .es go
The Judge is right. If he and the authori-
ties of Canada had acted the role of Mr.. Just
Ice Coursol, or il the Toronto Leader, or the
Montreal Telegraph reflected public opinion,
war between our Government and Great
Britain would, even at the present writing.
have been fairly under weigh. Judge Morri-
son rejoices that the order of Gen. Dix has
been modified by our Government, which
modification he halls as sign of peace and
good understanding between the two Govern
ments. f alss>I. 4 u t,s1 is7a,-- eee