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Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1850, 2 April 1863, Page 3

The Alabama. —The Federal Secretary of the Navy has made formal complaint in his report to Congress of what he appears to consider the complicity of the English Government in the proceedings of the Alabama. He tells the world that before that vessel left England the Government were duly informed of her character and purpose, but that they "came too late" to prevent her sailing, and he makes some distant allusion to the possibility of our being morally bound to make indemnification for the injuries inflicted on Federal merchantmen by reason of our connivance or negligence in the matter. Amid the disordered Institutions of his own country, the Federal Minister may perhaps be excused for forgetting the character of -ours. It may be necessary, therefore, to remind him that we have not martial law in England, and that the proceedings of the Executive in respect of all matters affecting the liberty or property of those residing in the United Kingdom must be regulated strictly in accordance with the law. Whether the interests involved be those of the greatest monarch or the meanest subject, they must be judged alike, and be regulated by the application of what is recognised as law by our judicial tribunals. The law bearing on the position of vessels such as the Alabama has since proved herself to be is comprised in an Act of Parliament known as the Foreign Enlistment Act, which proTides that where men are enlisted or vessels fitted out for warlike purposes, other than those of the Sovereign of this country, the Commissioners of Customs are authorised to seize the persons so offending and the vessels, and have the former tried for violating the provisions of the act. But in order to justify the Customs' authorities in taking a step of this nature they must have before them such reasonable and probable evidence of the guilt of the parties as would, prima facie, warrant the expectation of a conviction. "We apprehend that the kind of evidence that would fairly justify interference must not be less than that upon which a grand jury would find a true bill, or a magistrate commit a prisoner for trial. "When the Alabama was being fitted out, representations were made by the Federal agents of her character and purpose. The Government were asked to interfere, and the law officers of the Customs had to decide whether the case was one coming under the provisions of the Foreign Enlistment Act We "believe we are right in saying that the evidence proffered toy the Federal agents, on which they proposed that the -Government should act, fell very far short of what the Foreign Enlistment Act prescribed as a justification for '.interfering. It was mainly hearsay evidence, which we .need scarcely say is not evidence at all in an English court -The Federal agents were unable to get information in an authentic legal shape sufficient to sustain a prima facie <caae against those engaged in fitting out the vessel. In ithe absence of such a case the Customs' Commissioners tbad no more right to institute proceedings than to seize one of the Cunard steamships, and the Alabama sailed. The manner in which the vessel was fitted out was adanitably calculated to evad&the law, and as a matter of fact we believe she left England without a single gun or muni-' ttion of was on board. What Mr Gideon Welles, therefore, would apparently seek to place before the world as a piece at poKey on the part of Great Britain,',inimical to the North ufoA covertly aiding piracy, is simply a dry question of legal evidence, and tbe interpretation of an Act of Parliament passed fa tbe last century. It was purely,a matter of detail to be dealt with by a particular branch of the Executive in tbe ordinary way ta obedience to the law, and not • ground of political action. No interference with the Alabama took place, because there was no legal authority to justify it, and the Government might as fairly be subjected to political approaches because of the consequences of a decision of law utterly beyond their influence or control.—" Globe."