The Sun. — 1859-11-01 (London, England)

THE SUN. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 180,  The seizure of Sin Juan is an infraction of international law. It is, beyond this, a violation of the rules of honour. It is a flagrant act of robbery and violence—an act justifiable upon no plea whatsoever. E :en the more rational among the Americans themselves are beginning to recognise the monstrous injustice and insolence of the whole proceeding. General HARNEY'S own officers are among the number of those who reprehend the outrage, upon the perpetration of which he adventured (apparently without instructions or authorisation of any kind from Washington) in the name and on behalf of the United States' Government.  Yet San Juan is still held forcibly in possession of the American soldiers, to the number of seven hundred. The island, which is admirably situated about mid-channel between Vancouver and the mainland of the North American continent, is wonfully well adapted for the purposes of a permanent and powerful cluster of fortifications. It is not only admirably situated, but it is lofty, and in many respects capable of being transformed into the Gibraltar of the Pacific. Let us but yield quietly possession of San Juan to the Americans, and allow them to fortify it scientifically, and we may just as well, with a good grace, make the United States forthwith a present of our grand new Colony of British Columbia. It is simply absurd to dream for an instant of any British Ministry tolerating the perpetration, with impunity, of outrages so monstrous in themselves, and so directly calculated to lower the prestige of England, and to degrade her in the estimaLion of the world. Our submission to the seizure of a little island like that of San Juan, en island in regard to which we have all along made direct claims of sovereignty, would be worse in one respect even than the loss of a pitched battle. A discomfiture upon the battle-field might simply be the result of bad generalship. The craven toleration of a buccaneering crime like the seizure of San Juan, would, on the contrary, however, imply before the whot world an abasement of the national character. Itwonld be as pernicious, almost we had said as fatal, to our influence among gie powers of the earth, as in Mr.Bualies estimation when the Royal Guard's unresenting view of the insults offered to the fair Queen MAEIE ANTOINETTE implied tho extinction among them of the loftier impulses of chivalry. Time has been, heretofore, as far back as history can penetrate into the past deeds of this great Anglo-Saxon race, when the sword of the nation would leap from its scabbard invariably at the first hint of an outrage affecting the honoui of the Crown. But it is impossible to suppose, seriously, for an instant, that the seizure of San Juan can be accepted as ten fait accompli even by Lord PALMERSTON'S Government. It is true that the former Cabinet, presided over by the Noble Viscount, allowed those two poor English engineers to languish for months in the Neapolitan dungeons, to languish there so long that madness and an attempt at suicide (happily not successful) were among the consequences. But we recoil from accepting that lamentable incident so far as a precedent, that we should be disposed to regard in any way as a probability the submission of Lord PALMERSTON'S Government to the insolent seizure of San Juan by the American soldiers. Our prestige has been tco painfully depreciated already elsewhere* to adiiiit of our