The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-11-22
The hcnandOah-Tho Action or ths
English Government.

English government
BY the China we learn that the English au-
thorities have for time gotten the knotty
question of the Shenandoah off their hands in
characteristic way. They have handed the
ship over to the American Consul and set free
the piratical captain and crew. In this tho
English government has once more shown its
settled determination to do the least that is
possible to render us the smallest measure of
Justice that circumstances will permit Not
even an Englishman could expect US to thank
Great Britain for the surrender of this ship;
for a government even more res0lutely bent
upon injustice to MS than the English govern
ment, IL there could be one, could not have re-
fused it. That surrender Lord Russell could
not avoid by any conceivable bubble. What
he could not help doing he did, and he stopped
there. More than that, he has taken the
responsibility as against us of attempting to
varnish downright piracy, and he places the
government of Great Britain between our out
ragged laws and the wretch whom the whole
British press has denounced as a pirate, and
whom English officers signiaed their readiness
to assist in capturing. This is an outrage that
this country cannot stand from such source;
and unless England repudiates, in the most
unqualified way, this act Of her pigmy Minister,
it will 80 complicate the present disturbed re-
latons OF the two countries that their peaceful
settlement will not be possible. II we have
got to fight we had better do it right here.
Doubtless the case of the Stonewall was re-
lied upon by the English government as ct
precedent TO govern their action in respect to
the Shenandoah; but the cases are absolutely
and entirely dissimilar The Shenandoah was
in the hands Of the government that was to
blame for her origin, and that ought to have
been equally eager with us to give the world q
striking evidence Of its disapprobation Of her
acts that ought, indeed, to have desired by its
strict Justice against her to purge itself ofthe evil
il had unquestionably done to us by her origin.
Her position in the hands of such government
alone points the striking difference between the
case of the Shenandoah and the case of the
Stonewall in the hands Of Spain But the differ
ent footing Of the two ships is yet more
clearly seen, when we consider that the cap
tain and crew OF the Shenandoah are tainted
by series Of inhuman outrages against our
commerce that not only do not occur in the
other case, but that have no parallel in the
history of war or peace. For six months after
for six months after even the shadow Of right
was gone-this pirate burned our ships. He can
set up in his justification only the impudent sub
terfuge that he did not know the war was over.
He is properly compared in this respect by the
British papers TO man who shuts his eyes and
complains that he cannot see. He would not be-
lieve American captains-they were all liars |;
and 1t was six months before he could find an
Englishman, the only person who can tell the
truth. In all that time he continued his out
RACES, and Lord Russell tells the world that he
has done no harm.
The case of the Shenandoah stapds alone,
and its justice must be determined by rule
that the common sense Of the world will recog-
nize as q natural correlative Of the jus post
liminii. There are no personal rights to assert;
but we must assert the right Of our laws. The
criminels must be restored to the jurisdiction
Of the laws to which their crimea have made
them smenable, and they must be held a.
coming within our reach, as coming into the
hands Of On ally, when they are in the posses
sion of nation with which we have an extra
dition treaty. This is the spirit Of the law Of
postliminy, and 10 the natural justice Of the
case. England, by accepting the surrender Of
Waddell and the custody Of his ship, has be-
come responsible to us for oil; and the sur
render Of the whole crew must be demanded
under the extradition treaty, and insisted upon
In the most positive terms. II Waddell and
his fellow pirates are to 60 free, maritime law
is mere moonshine, and tho whole pretence
that justice is to be maintained on the high
seas ridiculous farce.
NEGRO WAGES AND WHITE EQUALITY Down
Sour,, Il, tho ounp1emeUt of n late number of