THE TREATY.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1715, 16 August 1862, Page 5

THE TREATY.

[From the " Time*," May 24,]

listurbed times, the Treaty published In If* t' tween this country and tlje United yesterday ° g BU pp ress ion of the Slave Trade » tales 11 vo bean the subject of much comment, ffould W ' caU ßed rejoicing both in religious and ffo ,";- < : a i circles. It is a victory of humanity, arid P oll P , the last remnant of the Slave Trade joasm l^ 11 3 be brought to an end by it; it is a is lively f g r j t ; a h influence and opinions, inasmuch victor °. 0 f Search, —that right contested with »3 the K "5 ogioll3 of national irritability by the such , eX P j s no w fully conceded to our cruisers, American- < » necessary for the detection and so &jj as . 0 f the slavers. The British statesmen Pi hTo spent a long life in endeavouring to #»o ° "j-n nations to feel the heinouaness of brfal 10 . ,fi ar crime may not congratulate them--0 P ' the final success of their efforts. As gelves o treaty comes into operation all soon as o( . t j ie two nat ; ons w yj De subject ° e Irocftl Right of Search and detention tf) *he distance of two hundred miles from " W «of A'rica and to the southward .of the 'I-parallel of north latitude, and within 30 - ,„nf the coast of the island of Cuba." So wife long debated question of the Right of e ,i So cease, we hope, for ever the defiant l!es of Washington politicians, the roar of mobs, the virulent articles of the antiB'dsn press, the formal and studied bitterness of • I Secretaries of State and American ffnS in L°» don ' Whether the Stars and brines be destined to cover less or more of terri--1 than of old is a matter hid in obscurity ; but 7 this Treaty be fairly executed there is one thing thit it will not cover, and that is the seething _a of human flesh which the slave pirate crowds ""der his hatches. New York must be content to 1 se a lucrative and romantic branch of commerce'' Anv day within the last twenty years there iui"ht"have been pointed out in the streets of that enterprising city men whom everybody, from (lie Mayor to the porters on the wharves, knew to bo professional slavers—men who had rot been merely seduced once or twice in their lives by opportunity or the prospect of great gain to run a cargo of Africans through the blockading squadron, but who were constantly, and as a call■J„ engaged in the trade, and likely to remain in jtVill they died or made their fortunes. It was nothing that they had committed a score of times an offence which the laws of the Union visited with death; it was nothing that they were under the ban of their own and foreign countries, which had declared slave-trading to be piracy. They came and went, lounged and " liquored" like other folk, spent the money on which no one chose to detect the smell of African blood, and all but boasted of their adventures and their gains.

All this time the squadrons ol England cruising on the coast of Africa, or iu the Gulf of Mexico, were forced to be inactive within sight of the most audacious slave trading. Though the United States took credit for being the first nation to legislate against the traffic, and though an American squadron actually kept the sea for the purpose of aiding in its suppression, yet the power which in the States wont by the name of public opinion was too strong for humanity, for international courtesy, or even positive law. Whatever serious people might say, the slavers were not unpopular in .New York. Their business excited the imagination, and appealed to the prejudices of the crowd. They were to thousands of adventurous young men what the bucaniers were in England in the old times—men of daring and resource, with whom it would be.a stirring thing to make a voyage. Then a morbid patriotism disposed the multitude in their favour. Above all men in the world, they defied and provoked the Britisher. All the prowess of these modern sea kings was displayed at the expense of British naval officers, whom they did not, indeed, fight and capture, but whom they eluded by running their vessels anywhere, in all weathers, to the discomfiture of commanders who had the fear of ihe British Admiralty before their eyes The Southern members in Congress and the Democratic party generally did not hesitate to pander to these passions, partly in the hope of prejudicing the people against anything which savoured of abolition, and partly because antagonism to England has always been worth a large percentage of votes in any national election. At last, against the spirit of alt treaties for the suppression of the trade, and against what may be called the common law of the seas, the doctrine was enunciated that no British officer had a right to stop and search any vessel whatever that hoisted the American flag, and that, however suspicious such a ship might be, the British must stop her at their peril. If she turned out to be American, the Government of the United States would look upon the matter as one calling for apology and compensation. It is hut two or three years ago that the representative of Mr. Buchanan's Government made a violent protest against the proceedings of a British officer who stopped an American ship, a»d he informed our Government that the complete immunity of the British flag would be henceforth maintained against England or any other Power. There was nothing but to yield to their assertion of extreme rights ; and, as the American squadron was suspiciously inactive on the coast, the business of the slaver was excellent during the last days of the Union.

These things cannot but make us feel that in executing the slaver Captain Gordon, the other daji for a crime of which scores had been guilty, the Government of President Lincoln was intent upon a political demonstration. To hold over the South the fear of abolition is the obvious policy of Washington, and this fear will be best aroused by a show of decision in dealing with all questions relating to Slavery. Although the Southern States are not importers of Africans, whom the planters fear and dislike, and the breeders dread as competiters with the native-raised Negroes; although there has been probably hardly a slave cargo landed at a Southern port during the present generation, yet there is just enough sympathy Mid just enough feeling of solidarity between Son© Carolina and Cuba to make the Treaty with England felt as a blow by the South. It is a defeat of their party, and a triumph of the Abolitionists; it will make the Government appear in earnest, inasmuch as the President does not allow even international jealousy to dissuade him from giving English corvettes the right to bring-to American merchantmen, to board them, demand their papers, examine their stores and cargo and the arrangements of the ships, and, if dissatisfied, to take them into port for adjudication. Without wishing to detract from tho merit of the concession which the United States' Government has now made to us, we may say that the Treaty has no little reference to the war which is now raging. Probably neither the President nor Mr. Seward would deny this. They would rather admit the fact, and declare that the sword of abolition suspended over the rebels is likely to be the chief instrument in bringing them to terms. Mr. Seward, we believe, has been the principal mover ln this matter, which originated entirely with the American Government. The Treaty was proposed fir st in a less formal shape, and then, Lord Lyons objecting that it would be dangerous to act upon an informal agreement, it was drawn up as it now stands. If Mr. Seward had desired to avert the danger of a British interference on the part of the South, he could not have hit upou a better expedient than to give the Liberal statesmen of this country, who have strong anti-Slavery feelings, a treaty the working of which will not only secure Peace, but cordiality, between the Governments. With the respective ships of war boarding the respective merchantmen of the two nations, and w 'th three mixed Courts of Justice sitting at Sierra Leone, the Capo, and New York, each Power must use much forbearance and urbanity towards the other. Let us hope that the concessions which the American Secretary has made to us will not be viewed with distrust by hiscountrymen. Th e honour of the American flag is as safe 111 the hands of our naval officers as in those of Americans themselves, and we feel sure that Mr. hiooaln's Government will never have cause to re 3ret the courts into which humanity or policy m Uow directed it,