THE MERSEY STEAM HAMS AND THE

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 14, 9 December 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE MERSEY STEAM HAMS AND THE

FOREIGN ENLISTMENT ACT (From the Times.)

Since we last adverted to the question of the Confederate steamers the case has been reviewed ; in a letter written by Lord Kussell himsdf. It will not, we presume have been forgotten that, according to an exposition of the law delivered by a learned correspondent in our columns, t fie limitation of neutral rights in transactions of this kind is perfectly clear. No citizen of a neutral State may side with/a belligerent or take part in the war. As rcg'K^ the particular -question which has now acquired such prominence, it-is distinctly evident what neutinls may do without breach of neutrality, and what they may not do. They may not furnish, fit out, arm, equip, or commission any vessel with the intention of employing her against either of the belligerents. Any venture of this kind in the work of the war would be unlawful, but here the interdict ends. . . Citizens of a neutral State must not lit out a vessel for a fighting or a privateering expedition, as they mijjht for a whaling expedition or a speculation .in some new fishing grounds, the whole transaction being a venture of their own This is the 'Squipment" which is pronounce. l unlawful, the unlawfulness consisting 0.-sentially in the design of the owners to employ the vessel themselves. Short of this, the construction and even equipment of a ship (f war for sale to a belligerent involves no breach of neutrality. If the vessel is sold in ilie ordinary way of Irark 1 , ami with out any respect to customer-*, th-.: advi-nture is lawful. That is the doctrine which has been laid down. American judges have been particularly explicit in their disciiminations of right and w:ong in the case, and while they have disiincily condemned anj'lhing like an engagement in the war, they have beencqually careful in pointing out that the latitude necessary for commercial adventure was still resei wd. Let us sec how far this doctrine is recognised by Her Majesty's Government. Lord Russell, it will be remembered, received a memorial from the, represen;uxtivi.s of a certain Association bespeaking his attention to tiie steam rams now lying in the Mersey, and destined by report for the service of the Confederate States of A iiictic.'i. in replying to this memorial his Lonl.-hip states Ihe law of the case as follows: — "J'ythe Foreign Enlistment Act a ship is liable to be detained, and its owners are subject to penalties, when the ship is armed and equipped for purposes of w;ir, aii('i its owners intend to use it against some i^tfite or community in friein!>liip with her IMaj.'fty. It is necessary to prove both the equipment and the intention." That view coincides precisely with the view expre-^cd in our correspondence. The adventure which is unlawful is only the adventure detine.l

above— an adventure in which citizens of the neutral State not only build and equip a ship of v;u\ but do so with the design ut' employing it thems.. lyes in the work of war. So far all is clear ; cut Loid Kussell present y proceeds to express himself in Urns which open the question once inure. lie intimates that the evidence which the authorities required before they could interfere, was -'evidence to prove that the steam rams in question were intended to cairy on hosiiitics against the (Joverument and people, of the United States ol America. 1 ' Now, that is something v-.-ry different from the definition given previously. 0.-ie of t lie supp .sitioiis is very probably correct, the other utterly inadmissible. Ninety-nine people out of a hundred believe that these steam rams aie "intended to carry on hostilities " sooner or latvjr against the Federals, but nobody entertains the idea that their owners intend to conduct the expedition themselves. The owners do certainly not intend " intend to use them." They intend, we may presume, to sell them lo certain purchasers and receive the juice in the way of trade. 13ut is one of tli se intentions lawful in the eyes of Government and the other unlawful, or are both unlawful together? Does Lord Kussell require evidence that the steam rams are to be navigated and fought by their present owners, or only that they are to be navigat' d and fought by somebody or other to the prejudice of a friendly power? On this di.- crimination the whole ca c wilt practically turn. It cannot b« deemed unlikely that the.--c vessels will find their way some dav'orother into thehands of tlu'Oonfedornics, and bo employed against the United States, but it is highly unlikely th:it their ini'soiit owners will be engage 1 in tho employment. If the latter condition is requisite to c.institute the unlawfulness of the transaction, we may safely assume that the transaction i . not unlawful, r.iul that investigation is superfluous; but if the tormer hypothesis is suiiicient to sustain intervention on the part of Government, we certainly do not wrnder at the " anxious inquiries on ;he subject" which the authorities have instituted.

We arc still left, therefore, in "a state of (1 übt. We do not know what is the evidence for which the .Ministers have been so noxiously inquiring. "We s>'e that, whatever it may be, they have not been successful in obtaining it, but whether they think it lawful or unlawful to build vessels like Ihc-s ¥ , and sell them purely in the way of trade, we cannot discover. If, however, the law on the subject is actually such as our correspondents have affirmed, nnd as Lord Russell in the fiist passage of his letter appears to believe, we must take leave to say that it is utterly nugatory. In these days there is hardly a chance that any body of Englishmen would set out on such filibustering expeditious as the law confines itself to forbidoing, and if nothing but the absence of this personal participation in the adventure is required to render the sale of steam frigates lawful, it will be very hard to prove anything against it. jSTo Uritish shipbuilder is likely to' turn buccaneer in his own proper person, or to leave the Clyde or the Mersey for a spell of righting on Ihe high seas. If it is only an adventurer of that character that is forbidden, the case will lie in a very small compass ; but then we find it impossiole to understand how we could have stopped the y/l<t,bama even if we had caught h-er, or on what grounds we requested the Americans to stop the sale of a ship to the Kussians in our last war.