The Sun. — 1864-02-13 (London, England)

HERALD.—Mr. Layard was a little hard upon the special pleaders last night. We never heard that it was incompatible with the duties of a " special pleader" to be either a member of the House of Commons, a gentleman, or a man of honour; yet the Under-Secretary of State, when asked for a categorical answer to a very plain question, went greatly out of his way to exalt himself at the expense of the bar, and succeeded in eliciting a few faint cheers from the Ministerialists by his appeal to his personal character. We know what sort of en effect this appeal generally has in the courts of justice, and wo are surprised that so old a hand as Mr. Layard should have ventured upon it ; but we should scarcely have alluded to it except as instancing the curious artifices by which a Ministry en extreinis endeavours to dissimulate its weakness. Special pleading, why one would have imagined that every one of her Majesty's Ministers had been trained to it from the evasive manner in which they have replied to every serious question that importunate members of the Opposition have plied them with this session. It is only by such closely de. fined terms as " natural sense," " grammatical interpretation," &e., that one is able to " fix" the Ministry to any of its assertions. As to getting information out of them, the whole art of Government would seem to consist in knowing "how not to give it." Last night's discussion in the House of Commons was only another illustration of their powers cf reticence. Mr. Fitzgerald, in a speech characterised not less by its lucidity than by its admirable temper, asked for coarespondence on four very important questions arising out of the hostilities between the Northern and Southern States of America. The cases he brought forward were-1. That of the Margaret and Jessie, a steamer owned by Confederate citizens, but chased on shore on the island of Eleuthera, and there shelled by a United States man of war. 2. That of the Springbok, captured by a United States cruiser between England and Nassau, and condemned on the ground that she was carrying contraband of war, whose ultimate destination was the Confederate States. 3. That of the Science, captured white loading cotton in Mexican waters, on the strength of her being alleged to have carried contraband of war which at the time of capture was lying in the customhouse of a neutral power. 4, That of the S axon, made a prize because she was taking on board, from on island near Natal, portion of a cargo, which at one time had been carried by an United States ship, and whose second officer, unresisting and unarmed, was deliberately shot dead by a brute in the uniform of the United States na These were all of them subjects of intene I • to the mercantile community awl .a interest Lo the —nation at large. They involve great principles of international law, and even national honour, It might presumed that the Government whichhas been eager to testify its readiness to resent insult by the bombardment of Ragosima would have been glad to show its promptitude in vindicating the honour of our flag, under circumstances even more trying to an Englishman's patience than the unpremeditated outrage of a barbarous race. The Attorney-General very speedily dispelled any such fancy. He would not produce the corre.7;poudence, but he was ready to justify, tie might almst say approve, the conduct of the United Stateso Government and its instruments in every particular. Nothing could exceed the delicacy of the compliments he paid to the Cabinet which published Mr. Seward's threat of pursuing Confederate cruisers into our ports, his admiration of Judge Betts, his handsome testimony to the strict regard for justice displayed by the Federal Government. Did not even Captain Baldwin “ expreae his regi et" at the murder of the unoffending Englishman ? What could be more sQothipg to the dead mareo relatives, or more satig•