New-York daily tribune., 1865-11-27

The intercourse Of nations should be liberal
and equitable, because the public, unlike the
common law, is not hampered by technicalities
and because the preservation Of peace aud the
prevention Of litigation is its first and great.
est object. Sharp practice at the bar of inter.
national opinion is necessarily discreditabls 70
the party which resorts to it. Ii was the op-
probrium of the old school Of diplomacy, when
ambassadors were sent abroad, to tell lies FOX
their country, and negotiation was merely
a clever game between couple OF
sharpers. We have to complain that En-.
gland, in all the disputes, which have
been occasiOned by the American troublea
has shown disposition rather to make out Z
case than to act in an honorable and generoos
spirit. The injuries which have been inflicted
upon us are patent to all the world; they can.
not be denied, although they may be extenusted.
Take for instance tho plea, really good for moth
.ng if sustained, that the American Government
did not exercise sufficient vigilance in pursuing
and capturing the Shenandoah. This utterly
ignores the extreme difficulty of finding and
fighting an individual cruiser. Even great fleet
may for long time elude interference; for
Lord Nelson. as vigilant sailor aSever squinted
through spy.glasS, ran over half the world in
quest Of the enemy, and did not find him after
all. OF course the possibility Of discovering
single ship is infinitely less, especially when, az
A pinch, she can take refuge in port profess
ing to be neutral. Half the immunity of the
buccaneers consisted in the difficulty OF finding
them. During our Revolutionary War tina
whole British navy failed to prevent the enor.
mou. damages inflicted upon British commerce
by Paul Jones.
Again. we are now furnished with elaborate
arguments to prove that Waddell must be re'
carded not ss a pirate, but as an honest bellie-
erent, because he declares that be was not IN
formed of the crishing-out of the Coniedefacy.
This plea Is advanced, with something oil the
audaoity of an Old Bailey lawyer, in The face "
The fact that England actually dispatched Q
man.of-war with orders to capture nm. but
he were acting inuooently, what have the bris'
ish Government to do with him, except per-
haps to carry him interesting and important IN
teligenoe' Yet the man it claimed the right
to treat as thief upon the high seas, becomes
a perfectly innocent person upon the land
1t seems to US that these complications, SO
dangerous to the peace Of the world, might have
been entirely avoided if the conduct of all the
people of England, from the first, toward the
United States, had been consistent and generous.
But there is devil Of money-making which
poisons the heart, and blinds the eyes, and sears
the conscience-which misleads its votaries
into sloughs of selfshness. and postpones all
moral interests when they conflict with those
which are material - which makes Parlia-
ments its tools and Cabinets its servants
which cannot reason outside the circle Of ao-
QUESTION, and displays in the conduct OF public
affairs all the narrow vices of the meanest shop
keeping. 1t is this passion for profit which has
given England bad name in every quarter o!
ihe globe which has been Indignantly censured
by the greatest of her satirists and philosophers,
and 10 which our American difficulties have
afforded q new and natural illustration.