The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-03-14
The Alabama Precedent.

l impOftdut Dtbdte IN the Tn Si1sh
Parliament.
Our advices from Europe inform us
that Mr. Labouchere's promised cues.
ton as TO the amendment of the Eng
lish Enlistment Act was brought before
the English House CT Commons FebIu-
ary %, cOutemporaneously with Mr..
Watkins Fenisn question. Mr.. Labou-
chere said in opening the question
Whatever might once have been the
state OF public law in Europe, there
was now an international Obligation
laid upon every State to prevent its
subjects from engaging IN acts OF hos
tility against any Power with which
their own government WAS on terms OF
neutrality, and il was an act of hOstil-
ity to fit out in neutral State a ship
TO prey upon the commerce of a nation
with which the government was at
peace.
He would only allude to one or two
cases IN order TO point out where, in his
opinion, our law was defective The
incidents of the career of the Alabama
were known to every honorable gentle
I man Vi lAlhA AlOubc. III A4AG ICDOIE Ol
the Board of Customs, it was admitted
/ that the American Consul at Liverpool
had frequently warned them of the
/ destination of that vessel, and Of the
hostile purposes to which she was to
be devoted, but they stated that they
were unable to act because they DOS
sessed no legal evidence as to its desti-.
! nation. Now, if our law had been the
same as that of the United States, the
|. Alabama would never have quilted our
| shores; for, in the United States, the
! Executive were empowered to order a
! precautionary embargo in cases of sus-
/ picion, even when there might not be
sufficient evidence to render a conVic-
tion probable.
The inethciency Of the present law
more clearly appeared from the course
| adopted by her Majestys Government
] in the case of the steam rams built by
/ Messrs. Laird There was no reasOna-
bic person, except perhaps the builder,
/ who doubted for one moment that
those vessels were to be paid for out of
| funds provided either directly or indi-
rectly by the Confederate Government,
and that they were intended to act as
Confederate ships-of-gar, yet so vague.
! loose and inefficient was our law, that
the Government was obliged at the last
moment to compromise the matter by
| purchasing the rams Hear, hear,
/ The country which IN the long run
would suffer most from the present
state Of the law, would be England
! herself, because she had the largest
carrying trade. Hear. Suppose we
were to 90 to war with Paraguay, which
! had no seaboard at all, what would be
the consequence Why, swift gunboats
| would issue from almost every port of
| the United States in order to prey upon
/ our commerce, and the rate of insure
ance of British vessels would become so
| high that no merchant would ship his
/ goods in an English bottom. Even
| supposing, however, that we never went
/ to war, it might happen that two other
/ great cOuntries-such as France and
the United States, for example-might
at some time or other be engaged in
| hostilities against each other. In such
an event much angry feeling would
arise, many angry dispatches would be
written, and accusations and counter
accusations would be banded from one
| side to the other, and very possibly we
| ourselves should be dragged into the
war
Mr.. Laing said
In what respect did the capture of
private property at sea differ from the
capture Of private property by land
/ Why should a Captain in the Royal
Navy receive prize money for the cap
! ture of a private vessel when the Colonel
of regiment would be cashiered for a
corresponding exploit on land 1t was
| 10 be remembered that the principle
! of uniformity was advocated by the
! United States at the Congress of Paris.
! The country ut that time iniudiciously
! lost an opportunity OF establishing
principle which would have been OF the
utmost value. We were at the mercy
! of any small State with whom We might
90 TO war, our commercial marine
| would be exposed 10 something like de-
structiou The Alabama having caused
| the trausference OF third of the tuu-
mage OF New York to foreign flags, in
| what position should we be if hun
| dred Alabamas were commissioned to
prey upon our commerce ? The whole
of our maritime commerce would be
transferred to the flags of insignificant
neutral States such as Belgium, Hol-
! land, Norway and Sweden, under which
alone it could be safely carried on.
Mr. Sanford said
He would like an international Con-
gress to settle a principle which all the
| great maritime Powers could introduce
! into their municipal laws. Had such a
measure been proposed during the late
| American war, he would have opposed
IL. as it would have been derogatOry to
| ENGLAND to have been supposed to alter
| her laws under the mensCes OF a foreign
| State; but as England did not fear
/ Chilli, Peru, or even Spain, the question
might be iehcitousiy considered now,
| when the United States showed a dlspO-
sition to act fairly, honorably and Justly
| with all foreign Powers. The papers
/ laid on the table of the House, and on
the table of the French Chambers,
sbo,yed that President johnson and
| his 4overnment were anxious TO fulfil
! international obligations. As he had
| never been supposed TO be a partizan
| of Mr. Johnson, be was only TOO happy
| 10 take that occasion Of offering his
I humble need of praise TO 8 man who
hsd disappointed the prophecies OF enc
mics ana the hopes OF friends hesr,
! hear and who was pursuing course
calculated, il anything could, to con,
/ solidate the Government OF the United
/ States.
bfr. Shaw Lefevre said of the doings
! Of the Shenandoah:
The Shenandoah vas fitted out in
! the port Of London, and a vessel called
! the Laurel was sent out from another
mort 10 meet her on the high seas.
| There wss not the slightest evidence
that could be produced 20 show for
what the Shenandoah was intended,
Mr. Adams did not know it People
hide this sort OF thing by every possible
means. When these two vessels got 10
Madeira they sailed 10 desert island
/ called Desertas and there in Portuguese
waters, but still, he believed, utterly
/ unknown 10 the Portuguese, they trans
terred the armament from the Laurel
to the Shenandoah. The men were
mustered on deck, and the Csntaln
said 10 them 81 do not intend 10
fight Any one can see this vessel
wss not made for fighting IN
tend to run away rather than fight
/ NJ orders are 20 destroy the Federal
commerce by destroying, ss isr as /
can. the vessels that carry II In
Z pursuance OF those instructions the
/ Shenandoah burnt sm the vessels il
could hnd on its way 10 Melbourne.
When il got there it wss hospitsbly re
ceived by the AUTHORITIES, and remain
| ed for something like thres weeks.
. Repairs we're executed, and eventu-
ally il sailed thence, having been en-
/ sbied. in the meantime, 70 enlist some
fifty or sixty men in addition 10 the
crew il had already. Then it went 10
the Arctic Seas, snd there it burnt all
the whaling vessels which il found, and
~. the crews on shore among the say.
sges Il Then proceeded 70 Behrng
Strait, where. lolg eiter The war wss
n 49, 3