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    Untitled Article

    Lord Pj ^ lmebston ' s attempts- to make capital out of the Isle of Serpents squabble are neutralized by the circumstance that he has not guaranteed the Black Sea against Russian supremacy , that Russia is filling the ports on the eastern coast with merchant vessels manned by men-of-war crews , that the Euxine has been a Russian base of operations against the Chechnian territories along the Caucasus . Lord Pal-Merston drifted into the war with his friends ;

    T > ut he was personally responsible for having been dragged off the field by the French Government , and cajoled at the Conferences of Paris . There , moreover , he suffered his plenipotentiary to hold his most ignominious peace on the liberty of the press and of public discussion ; instead of sustaining , by the moral example of a great and free nation , the menaced independence of the Swiss and Belgians , he allowed them to endure the entire weight of French Imperial pressure . To Sardinia he made no return for

    her campaign [ in the Crimea , leaving Austria and France free to pursue whatever / poiMsjf the jealousies or the alarms of their sovereigns dictated . The conduct of the late G-overnment towards Naples was inexpressibly degrading to the national character . First , in concert with France , they blustered about intervention , and withdrew their representative ; then , not being able to agree with

    Louis Napoxeon , they stood off from the subject altogether , and were taunted by every absolutist journal in Europe ; lastly , they allowed two Englishmen to be captured on the open sea , to be incarcerated for months without trial , and to be maltreated until one of them lost his health and the other his senses . -This is Lord Palmerston ' s highest title to praise as a minister who asserts the power and reputation of his country .

    On the contrary , he has sacrificed it . Intensely hostile to any other form of liberty than that which comprises a crown , a supreme aristocracy , and a limited third estate , he regarded the French Republic with an evil eye . But , inimical to the Orleans dynasty , he was favourable to the usurpation -winch avenged him upon the ex-royal family of France , and was the first English statesman to approve of the Coup d'Etat . This he did , not with reserve , but eagerly and in terms of precipitate congratulation . Ever since , he has been the diplomatic follower of Louis Napoleon ; he accepted his lead in

    the war with Russia ; he received from him the signal of peace . Finally , he yielded to him upon a question vitally affecting the national honour , in a way by which the national honour was disgracefully compromised . In the story of this transaction we do not find a single redeeming incident . M . Waibwski wr . ote an aggressive , false , and insulting despatch , which remained officially unanswered . The Moniteur published a series of licentious and ruffianly military addresses directed against England , and not a word of protest was uttered by the Minister who , in 185 0 , was a Roman citizen , as Sir Robert Peel reminds us . Then came the Conspiracy Bill . " Thftt was his answer to M . w ALBWSKl ' s

    despatch , " Mr . Gladstone said , and it was a concession in reply to a threat . Smitten thus in the very front and head of his prestige _ asja _ puJ ^ Uc ^^^ Commons which had once professed Itself ' proud of him , ' for having neglected to uphold the dignity of Great Britain , with John Bright and Mr . Miuneb Gibson , whom last year he expelled from Parliament , this year expelling him from office , Lord Palmerston hopes to return , after allowing Lord Djbwby to disport himself for a few weeks in Downing-street with the mystical Disraeli and mon oher Malmebbuiiy .

    Lord Palmerstoit sent a message to the French Emperor to the effect that the British public had been offended , and that something must be done to make things pleasant . A cold and prevaricating apology was returned , for publication in England , but for suppression in France . This did not seem to suffice . The Waiewski despatch had not been answered , and condemnation fell upon the Premier . He had still a card , however , for although it was necessary to resign , in formal deference to a majority , he believed

    that any other than a Paxmerston Government was an absurdity , and not a few of his friends still affect this opinion . Consequently , Lord CowxjEY was instructed to state his view of the matter , and the House of Commons having censured Lord Palmeeston , is now censured by the British Ambassador at the Court of Paris . Concerning the abject drivel of Lord Cowley ' s despatch to Lord Clarendon we will not say a word . But what result did he suppose would arise from the explanation that , having left M . "

    Walewski ' s insolence unrebutted , Lord Palmerston had transmitted a few private hints to the French Emperor , warning him at the same time that any enactment which could be introduced into Parliament must be altogether inoperative ? It distinctly appears from this that the Conspiracy Bill was designed as a formal apology from Great Britain for the freedom of her institutions . The Palmerston Ministry had already apologized for the liberty of the press ; it now treated the liberty of the subject as a neeessary evil .

    The House of Commons feels' the dismissal of Lord Palmerston as a release . His arrogance , his levity , had wearied all except his own personal following . He was an Obstructive in disguise , as Whigs of his stamp usually are , when on the Treasury bench . He had attempted to drive Parliament before him , instead of leading it . He had been a ' punishing' State jockey ; he had introduced into domestic government and into the Legislature all the trickery of a hack diplomatist , and , although we have condemned the policy favoured by some Liberals , of rewarding their enemies to punish

    the short-comings of their friends , we prefer to pass through the ordeal of a temporary Tory Administration to retaining Lord Palmerston in power . Still worse would it be to bring him in again through a gap in the Conservative ranks . Offensive before , he would then be insufferable . His ascendancy would be the nightmare of the House , and , as he affected on Monday last to slip off the Government like a gl ^ ve , he would resume it as its only possible and rightful proprietor . He is dead , and must be , decently or indecently , buried . We have had more than enough of a House of Commons browbeaten by a brazen Minister , and of a Liberal party duped , bewildered , and degraded .

    Untitled Article

    THE SEIZUiUL OP THE OAGLIAltl . A very serious question of maritime law has been raised by the capture of the Cagliari , and we publish an account of the case as it stands , some of the most important points relating to the action assumed by the Government of Piedmont not having been P £ eoiaely Jjtated elsewhere . The steamboat ^ Oagliari 7 ~ thir *" pfop'ert 3 r" ~ of Messrs . Rub att tiro and Company , sailed from Genoa last spring , upon its periodical voyage to Cagliari , in the island of Sardinia , and to Tunis . Not many hours had elapsed before twenty-five out of the thirty-two passengers rose upon the captain and crew , and made themselves musters of the vessel . This accomplished , they sailed to Ponza , and afterwards to Sapri . There they set at liberty the

    captain , Sitzia , who , upon recovering his liberty , sailed for Naples in the Cagliari , with the intention of informing the Sardinian consul of all that had -occurred . Before the voyage was completed , two Neapolitan men-of-war , the Tancredi and the Ettore Fieramosca , captured the steamboat and carried her to Naples . Now , the Cagliari was captured upon the high seas , about thirty miles from Salerno , and twelve miles from the small creeks of

    Capri—that is to say , on the free sea , over which no power has jurisdiction , except over its own subjects . It is proved that the vessel was no longer in the violent occupation of the rebels , and that none of them remained on board . These facts have been absolutely demonstrated by legal evidence , and are even admitted by the Neapolitan Government . Therefore , it cannot be

    disputed that the Cagliari was illegally captured . Nothing could have justified the seizure on the principle of public right unless ib bad been presumptive proof that the vessel was a pirate . Now , the Cagliari had a registered captain , a certificate of nationality , and regular ship's papers , and was furthermore protected by her national flag . She was engaged in no act of

    piracy . She had sailed from Genoa , on her passage to Cagliari and Tunis , in accordance with a published announcement , upon one of the periodical dates advertized by her owners . In point of fact , she had been chartered as a Royal mail-packet between the Italian continent and the Island of Sardinia . All on board was en regie when the Neapolitan frigates made prize of the Cagliari .

    The Neapolitan Admiralty Board appears to argue that the Cagliari was an enemy to the Neapolitan state , but this assumption rests upon not one particle of evidence . She belonged to a friendly power ; , by the flag of that power she was protected . That she had been for a few hours in the possession of a few insurgents , who had laid violent hands upon her captain and crew , by no means created a state of war which , in fact , can only exist between recognised governments . The attempt of Pisaoane was the act of a

    conspirator with a few associates , engaged in a desperate enterprise , and as much in defiance of Piedmontese as of Neapolitan law , and the affairs of Ponza and Sapri came under the ordinary enactments against rebellion , under the authority of which they might have been legitimately punished , according to the princi ple observed in the case of the ship Carlo Alberto , which , in the month of April , 1832 , carried the Duchesse de Berhi to France , and was afterwards captured , not on free sea , but in the French port La Ciotafc . The offences which led to the capture of the Cagliari were offences triable by the

    ordinary courts of justice , but the Neapolitan . Government , in order to secure the sequestration of the vessel , passed it over for judgment to the Special Court of Prize and Wreck , whereas the Bteamer could be neither captured nor retained legally as a prize . The Piedmontese Government will not acknowledge , nor should any maritime government admit , the right , on the part of a man-of-war , of capturing a foreign merchantman , unless it be caught in the yery act of piracy , which , as we have shown , was not the case with the Cagliari . One of the great arguments of the ¦ Neapolitan ~ Government ^ is , Jvv © . ar . e , iuforiyed , __ that the two men-of-war had followed the

    steamer into the free sea before they captured her . They had , no doubt , a right to bring her to , and examine her papers on the high Be * , but having discovered all on board to be en rbgle , they were bound to set her at liberty . At all events , even if they were excusable iu , taking her to Naples , the subsequent act of sequestration was in direct \ io-

    Untitled Article

    204 T H E XBADER . [ No . 414 , February 27 , 1858 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 27, 1858, page 204, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2232/page/12/