THE ANGLO-AMERICAN QUESTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVII, Issue 977, 22 March 1862, Page 5

THE ANGLO-AMERICAN QUESTION.

(liiOM THE 'WKKKLY AttGUS,' MARCH 7.)

Convoys of vessels of war have been appointed to the steamers carrying the despatches. 4,000 of the Grenadier Guards have received orders to embark for Canada. The soldiers which have embarked at Liverpool for Canada have been the object of an enthusiastic popular ovation. The .sailors of the ileet have welcomed them with hearty cheers. The merchant ships about to depart have been fitted up with a view to warlike operations. The Cape of Good Hope Mail Company has received orders from the Government to arm their steamers. A banquet has been given to Captain Williams, of the Trent. The captain responded patriotically, and read the letter which had received from the Admiralty approving of his conduct. Meetings have also been held at Rochdale and at Manchester.

Captain Tricoult of the Imperial Navy, aide-de-camp to the Minister of Marine, is to have the command of the naval squadron about to be fitted out to protect French interests in North America. The Minister of Marine has sent orders to the port admirals at Brest and Toulon to prepare ships to reinforce the French squadron otf the coasb of Mexico and the north-western.coast of America. It is also said that a squadron of observation is to be sent to the coast of Ainoncn, under the command of Vice-Admiral Penaud. ;

The message of President Lincoln, which was so impatiently expected, does not decide the question, nor can it do so, for the note to Lord Lyons had not arrived, and it is with Congress alone that the decision rests. Captain Wilkes has been promoted by the Minister of Marine to the rank of commodore. We are driven to conjecture as to the course which will be taken by the Government of the United States. Each day news of the most contradictory kind is in circulation respecting the attitude of this Government, sometimes pacific, sometimes bellicose. This mail cannot carry to you the solution of the mystery, since the definitive response will not arrive till the commencement of the new year, There is consequently immense anxiety and a sort of commercial paralysis. Nothing but lamentations are heard.

France has pronounced on the question of the Trent. The despatch addressed by M. de Thouvenel, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to all the agents of France, is perfectly explicit, and founded on true principles. He withholds his belief that the Government of Washington consents to acknowledge its liability (la solidarity) or identification "with the act of the San Jacinto, and he counsels it, in the name of the principles which the United States have always maintained, in the name of the general interest, of the liberty of commerce and navigation compromised by practices against which the United States have strongly protested at other times, to yield to the "English Cabinet by releasing the passengers taken from on board the Trent, with such sufficient explanations as will divest the act of all offence towards the British flag.

The official proclamation of the principle on which the security of neutral powers rests, on the eve of a conflict of this kind, binds the French Government to defend them in case of need.

The French press has received the felicitations of the English press, on its testimonies of sympathy on the occasion of the Anglo-American conflict, nearly the whole of the French writers having shown themselves favourable to the thesis maintained by England, a circumstance which shows the good understanding which exists more than ever between the two peoples. The English press has been equally sensible of the just homage rendered by the French journals to the memory of Prince Albert, who died on the 15th December, at eleven o'olock at night, at the age of forty-two.

England and America have had concentrated upon them all the interest of the period which has elapsed since the departure of the last mail; the events which have passed in other nations, of mediocre importance, are eclipsed by the grand eventualities of an Anglo-American war.

In Italy General Gaylor is in concert with the military authorities of Naples for the repression of brigandage. The troops have succeeded in cutting off the base of operations of the Chief Chiavone. The Bourbonian Captain, Borgea, had been taken and shot by Major Franchiin on the Bth December, at Pagliacozzo." j The following is from the letter of the English correspondent of the ' Commercial Gazette 1 :— We must wait patiently until Saturday next, the 28th, at least. My own impression is, that Mr. Seaward is too much under mob rule, and the Executive at Washington too lamentably weak to do what their better nature would prompt them. Already Captain Wilkes has been feted at Boston and in other places, and the canaille of the presl! are hounding on the Government to a war with England as the only means of escaping from the difficulties in which they are placed. The merchants and bankers are in consternation, as they may be; but their voice will be lost and unheard in the clamours of an unbridled democracy. In the short space I have at my command, I can merely allude to these important topics; but I have supplied the the editor of the' Commercial Gazette' with extracts from the English, American, and French papers on the matter, with Mr. Russell's admirable letters, and with the complete text of President Davis's and President Lincoln's addresses to Congress. The President of the Federal party makes no mention of the affair of the Trent in his address on the 2nd inst; and this is taken as a special omen. I sincerely trust it may be so, but America must now learn that it cannot twist and turn international law to suit its own convenience, and that a great nation cannot be insulted with impunity; and will not allow its moderation to be mistaken for anything but moderation. By the consecutive publication of the documents I have sent,, the public will be able to judge fairly and impartially, and I trust there is not an English heart beating in Mauritius which, while frequently hoping for peace, will not be ready and willing to vindicate the honour of the English name. I must find space, however, for the legal opinions of two great international law writers, Mr. Pratt and M. Hautefeuille, because the whole status of the case is compressed^ into a few luminous sentences. One ■of these writers, Mr. Pratt, says,—' The object of the laws against contraband being to prevent the communicating of assistance to the enemy, it is absolutely necessary to constitute that offence that the destination of tho goods be a hostile port. Goods going to a neutral port cannot fall under that denomination, the conveyance of goods to such a destination being lawful. When, however, two ports of different character are situated in the same bay, not separated by a headland, these are considered as identical, and a destination to the neutral one will not protect from condemnation. If the original destination be to a hostile port, but that destination bo changed before capture, the vessel and cargo become exempt from tho charge of contraband.' M. Hautefeuille, the author of the Hisloire de la Loi Maritime Internationale, has given his opinion in ' questions de droit maritime international' Ho Bays —'First, the captain of the American frigate violated all the rules relative to the right of search. Second, no case of contraband of war can exist in a neutral vessel sailing between two neutral ports; if there were contraband of war the sole right of the American cruiser would be to seize the vessel, to carry it into one of the ports of his own country, and there have it legally condemned. Third, persons cannot be con* gidered contraband of war in any case.' Fourth, Messrs. Slidellund Mason not being in the military leryice of the Southern States at the time of thpiv

iirront, could not bo carried oh" frotiri the neutral vessel in which they wore sailing. it is cloav then that Captain Wilkes him violated all those principle's which regulate international-relations.' M. Hautefeuille also decides that President Lincoln tins not the right to seize and males prisoners of the inhabitants and officials oftlie Soiitltorri Confederation wherever he can find them, although he lias the right to regard them as rebels. The 'Economist' of the 21st instant has an admirable article by a legal correspondent 'on the exact law of the Trent case,1" in which each point is calmly discussed, and all prove how wrong was the captain of the American ship. It is therefore idle to think of adopting the plan of arbitration proposed by Messrs. Cobden and Bright and the peace party (soi disant). -There can be no case for arbitration when all the wrong is on one side, and all the right on the other. The question is also out of the pale of arbitration now, since the Emperor of the French has informed the Court at Washington that the act was illegal, and that England and European civilization have a just claim to a reparation of the outrage. The spirit of the country has been now fairly roused in an incredibly short space of time; by the foresight and energy of the Ministry, a fleet has been got ready snch as never rode on the ocean before, armed with all those appliances of modern science which the country has been long preparing, though it little thought that, in all probability, these terrible instruments of destruction would have to be first brought to bear against a nation and people sprung from our own blood and kindred.- Southampton a few days ago recalled the times of the Crimean war; the Ist Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, the 2nd Battalion of the Scotch Fusileers, and 2nd Battalion of the 16th Regiment, the 17th Regiment, with various brigades of Artillery, trains of Armstrong guns, and everything that can give efficiency to the service, have already left the shores of England for Canada. General Lord F. Paulet commands the Brigade of Guards, Colonel Wetherall has been appointed chief of the staff in Canada, LieutenantColonel Shakespeare, 9th Brigade Royal Artillery, has been selected by the Commander-in-chief for special service in North America, and Sir Allan M'Nab has been entrusted with the organization of the Canadian Militia. Reserves of troops will be stationed at Bermuda, the*-34th Company of Royal Engineers are already there, and the stli Company are under orders. The 15th, 17th, 36th, 47th, 62nd 63rd, 96th Regiments are' all ready to go, and by the time these lines reach Mauritius, 15,000 of the picked troops of England will be on Canadian soil. France, too, is reinforcing her naval division in the Antilles and Mexico, so as to be ready for any emergency; and in the matter of the southern blockade that country acts with England ; for, as the 'Revue Contemporine' observed: — 'If ever there was an occasion when the powers had a common interest it is the present time, with this insolent and brutal provocation before them. Need we call to mind that France is more interested in it than any other country f An attack on maritime rights is for her a sort of personal injury, not only because she is, after England, the first maritime power, but also, and above all, because she at all times defended the principle of. the liberty of the seas, and because it was on the proposal of her representative, Count Walewski, in the Paris Congress, that this principle obtained a new victory and a new ratification.'

I have merely space for one phrase from those admirable letters of Mr. iiussell published iv the ' Times ' to-day, 26th, but this one phrase expresses the whole question:—' If, unhappily, any of the foreign complications expressed in the President's message should force the power which conceives itself injured to demand satisfaction, this Government is so feeble that it dare not avert the greatest calamity by an honourable and just reparation and concessions in the face of the arrogant demos, which neither knows its own danger nor, in its passionate selfishness, regards the feelings of any nation of which it is jealous or suspicious. Mj own impression is, that Mr. Sevvard will not comply with Lord Lyons's demand ; but I sincerely hope I may be wrong.'