MISCELLANEOUS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 851, 17 August 1871, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Cholera prevails at Amiens. A Mormon conference has been held in Glasgow. The health of the Princess of Wales has greatly improved of lata. London now covers an area of 122 square miles. The English Government have declared their intention to call in the old silver coins. According to official report, 16,000 French prisoners died in Germany. A cat show was to be held at the Crystal Palace in June. A mountain of salt, nearly pure, haa been discovered in San Domingo. The Duke of Sutherland is erecting a winter palace at Cairo. Miss Burdett Coutts was raised to the peerage at the special request of the Queen. Butter is now made largely horn flint in some parts of the south of England. Mr Spurgeon is still very ill from gout, intensified by extreme depression. In Liverpool a boy has died from the effects of, a bite from a cat. liifles are being daily discovered in the cellars, churches, and catacombs in Paris. The Swedish Government,are meditating the colonisation of SpitzbergenHeavy falls of snow took place in several parts of England and Scotland in the beginning of Juue. The Chinese Government are busily preparing for war. Forts are being erected, and guns imported. A self-acting log for steam vessels has been invented by a mechanic m the Italian navy.

The Imperialist party are reported to be plotting actively, and to nave a «' rigidly defined programme." A duel between two Judges has taken place in Cuba. After wounding each other, they went to breakfast together. A movement is going on in Edinburgh to abolish the use of fermented wine at the sacrament The centenary of Sir Walter Scott is to be published by the' Crown Princess of Prussia this month. A fire, by which £IOO,OOO worth of property was destroyed, has occurred at Hey wood, near Manchester. A. Punjaub jury Jately returned a verdict of " Not Guilty," and recommended the prisoner to mercy J The Communists declare that Irondon or Brussels will be their next field of operations.

The capture of Rochefort is reported to have caused much satisfaction to all shades of politics in Paris. The " women of Ireland " are raising a fund for the Pope, £2OOO has already been raised in small sums. The New Testament company of the Bible Revision Committee nave nearly finished St Matthew's Gospel. The members of the Joint High Commission were irreverently known in Washington as * High Joints." The Sultan of Turkey is about to pay a visit to the Czar, and Batoum, a seaport of Asiatic Turkey, on the Black Sea to the east of Trebizond, will probably be ceded to Russia, k M. Thiers is reported to have informedthe Pope that he cannot reckon on more than moral support from ibYance.

Paper-making on a large scale, and according to a new principle, is about to be'cotamenced in Ire-land.

O'Dokovaa Rosea has been appointed an "immigration agent at New York for a, lme of Liverpool vessels. Official invesligatioss show that the strikes among workmen in Germany are supported by the fends of English trade trawms.

It is sattfi that in all probability the English Government will refer the licensing question to a Koyal Commission.

A party often undertakers went to the Derby in a hearse drawn by four black horses.

Ae_ Carlist movement is considered imminent in Spain, and much agitation prevails. A Mias Wattles and a Mrs Comb have started business as legal practitioners in Kansas.

It will take 60 years to restore to France the forests ruthlessly wasted in the military operations of the late war.

The shelves in the British Museum library, if placed in a line, would extend 12 miles.

It is believed that the decree dissolving the National Guard of Paris will be extended to the whole of France.

The "Echo du Nord" say a "the Parliamentary conspiracy against M. Thiers is patiently pursuing its way." Prince Arthur met with a severe fall aWßuckingham Palace by leaning his hack against an unfastened French ■casement window.

Domhrowski's sangfroid, under the hottest fire, and in the most perplex* ing situations, is described as hating been something wonderful. 140 beds baye been engaged at two hotels for the witnesses in the Tichborne case, who are conveyed to Westminister Hail daily in special ■omnibuses.

In a western city in America, a man has been shot for " personally insult ing " the inhabitants, by endeavouring to deliver a temperance lecture.

The students of the University of Eome have twice enthusiastically •cheered the Professors for their proteat against the excommunication of Dr Bollinger.. The Emperor of Germany has purchased, as a present to Prince Bismarck an estate in Poland, with a renttoll of 120,000 thalers per annum. A gigantic lawsuit about some land 'will shortly be commenced in San Francisco. There are 1000 defendants, and 270 lawyers have been engaged. The town council of Munich has resolved to appoint, as teachers of religion, only persons who will undertake not to teach the dogma of infallibility.

In a Paris church the rebels dressed a marble statue of the Virgin Mary as a vivandiere, and made a hole in the inouth to insert a pipe. An American paper says of a very prominent military general that *' his sword was never drawn but once—and then in a raffle."

In a cigar shop in' Parliament street London, the following notice is posted, " Credit is given to gentlemen, but «ash is expected from members of Parliament."

A new morning paper is shortly to be started in London. The promoters are said to have capital amounting to £IOO,OOO with which to make the venture.

In a recent speech, General Trochu declared that France had been "invaded by two plagues—English luxury and Italian corruption/' The presents made to Adelina Patti by European crowned heads are said w amount in all to 927 purses of gold, pearl sets, diamond rings, necklaces, tiaras, &c. All the sacred vessels and ornaments »Ken from the churches in Paris by M»e Communists have been found in we Mint and other places. On winning the Derby, Baron Rothschild wns eo mobbed by his adv!j : ' x policomen were required to keep him from being

smothered or torn to pieces by the enthusiastic crowd. It is rumoured that the Great Eastern will ho chartered this summer to take two thousand persons on a pleasure trip to. the United States, for £5 each.

When Paris was captured, the influx of people was so great that many slept in cabs and lofts, or on dining and billiard tables. Even chain and stools were hired as sleeping perches.

THE TREATY of WASHINGTON

It is no exaggeration to say that the treaty of Washington marks a new era in international law. While it in terms confines itself to past acts and the consequences resulting to the high contracting parties from those acts, it in effect lays down principles and rules which will have an enduring operation not only as between Great Britain and the United States, but between all nations possessing a seaboard. The extension given by it to the existing code is entirely in the direction of peace, or rather of the course of conduct, which by preventing occasions of quarrel promotes peace. But even if the treaty did not expressly declare that the " three rules " were altogether novel and the creatures of the treaty itself, the fact that they are so, would be apparent on the face of them. The words are • as follows : —" A neutral Government

is bound (1) to use due diligence to prevent the fitting out, arming, or equipping within its jurisdiction, of any vessel which it has reasonable ground to believe is intended to cruise or carry on war against a power with which it is at "peace aud also to use like diligence to prevent the departure from its jurisdiction of any vessel intended to cruise or carry on war as above, such having been specially adapted in whole or in part within such jurisdiction to warlike use; (2) not to permit or sufferjeither belligerent to make use of its ports or waters as the base of naval operations against the other or for the purpose of renewal or augmentation of military.supplies or arms, or recruitment of men; (3) to exercise due diligence in its own ports and waters, and, as to all persons within its jurisdiction, to prevent any violation of the foregoing obligations and duties."

The Queen's Government declares that it vannot assent to these three rules as an exposition of the principles of the law of nations in force hitherto, but it concedes that by these three rules, except so far as they may be capable of expansion,Aiot of limitation, by any known principles of law, the liability of Great Britain to the "Alabama claims" shall be ascertained. In the present this is a very grave sacrifice for the Queen's Government to make. In the future it may be a very great gain. Let us look at our position. Judged by the law as it stood at the period of the alleged grievance, we are free from responsibility. The complainants admit the position, because, if our. responsibility could be made out according to the then existing law, what need was there to make a new law to fit our case ? But because we wish to be just, and perhaps generous—and because we wish, ai? some present loss of money and even of dignity, to reap a future harvest for the benefit of ourselves, of the United States, and of the whole maritime world—we consent to this privilegium, this law which has been expressly made by the complainants themselves to erect alleged facts into a legal injury so as to found thereon a lawful claim. Now, as between individuals, such a course of action is not without precedent. Surely we must all have had experience of cases in which the law offers a good defence to a party attacked, but in which such party from proper motives says :—" It is true that I am not legally responsible to you, but there is no doubt that you have suffered loss, and though there are other persons more guilty of wrong towards you than me, yet, as an honest man, and as one who wishes to live well with the world, 1 will indemnify you." Of course such a man will be called by some people a fool for bis pains, and so there are many persons who regard the conduct of Great Britain as inconsistent with her honour, her prestige, and her great moral and physical power, but we think that they are mistaken; while, as to the ultimate advantage of her concessions, not only to herself but to the cause of law and order, we entertain no sort of doubt. That foresight which has so often distinguished English diplomacy has not been wanting in this matter. It is not necessary to recapitulate or comment on the " practice" portion of the treaty, more especially as we have already given the text of the document; but there are one or two questions collateral to the subject matter deserving attention. Lord fiedesdale has raised what Lord Granville admits to be a new point. His Lordship said in the House of Lords that he was anxious that an important point of international law should receive full consideration, which he believed had not been the case, before this matter was settled—viz., the great part which the Southern States held in the building and fitting out of the Alabama and other vessels. They ordered and paid for the ships, and the injury to tlio trade of the North was committed by them; yet they were now represented by President Grant's Government, which made tho claim for compensation. Thus Virginia and the other Southern States

i were asking us to give an indemnity for the injury committed by themi selves. This in private life would be ' unjust, and he contended that the . American Government were barred by the course they had taken towards the Southern Stales from prosecuting the; claim. Had the South achieved its independence, and had the claim of tie North against this country been substantiated, we should certainly have asked the South to reimburse us for damages awarded, the injury having been committed by and for it. The North could have required the South, as a condition of peace, to give compensation for that injury; but, it having thought proper to forgive the principal, how could a claim be made against the agent ? Now, Lord Eedesdale, inheriting his father's talent, is one of the best lawyers of the day, and the point thus taken by him is very ingenious. But we cannot think that, on a particular assumption as to the final destination of the money to be paid by way of compensation, the objection is sound. First, Great Britain and the Confederate States were not in the relation of agent and principal in their conduct as against the Northern States. They were both principals and both wrongdoers, and as between wrongdoers the doctrine of contribution is unknown. Each is liable in severalty to the injury party, and it is no defence to say that the action as against the other has been compromised. Second, if the money which we are to pay for the Alabama claims is not to go into the United States Treasury, so as to be used for the benefit of the whole community, and thus ultimately to relieve taxation, .it will not find its way into the pockets of the people of the Southern States. Our view of the ease is this. Certain vessels were destroyed by the Alabama and the other Confederate cruisers. Many of those vessels were insured, and the underwriters have paid for total losses- The claims to be presented to the arbitrators or assessors will be the losses sustained by the ship owners, cargo owners, or underwriters, as the case may be. These are the claims of private persons, not of the State, and the action of the State is, upon our hypothesis, limited to the advocacy of them novt, and the temporary trusteeship of the moneys to be recovered and paid under the award. It is true that the first board of arbitrators may decide that a gross sum be paid by Great Britain to the United States, but we do not understand that it is thereby intended that the United States Government is to receive such sum and appropriate it to its own public use. We cannot conceive that such is the intention of the commissioners, for we are wholly at a loss to comprehend any principle upon which such a transaction could proceed, and we readily admit that if this is to be done, the objection taken by Lord Eedesdale ought to be a fatal one. Great Britain would then be simply paying the war debt of the United States, and, as his Lordship says, reimbursing the South for its own wrongdoing. But we do not think that this is the true meaning of the treaty.

There are two other singular points concerning this treaty. The preamble expresses the regret of the Queen at the escape of the vessels from British ports, but it abstains from atiy allusion to the coaling, or victualling, or hospitable reception of the vessels in those ports. Tet the Confederate ships were treated in British ports at least as well as Northern ships. We can hardly doubt that the United States Government has alleged a grievance on this score. But there is no doubt that, as a matter of fact, though there was, of course, never any formal treaty between Great Britain and the Confederate States, there was an understanding that such hospitality should should be extended to Confederate ships in consideration of the observance by the Confederate Government of the Declaration ef Paris. This fact is not generally known in this country, but we believe that it cannot be denied.

It may further be noted that the second class of claims arising out of any injuries done to persons or property, by whomsoever those claims may be put forward, are limited to things done between April 13,1861, and April 9,1865. The latter date is the day of the fall of Richmond, which is taken as the end of the war. But it is known that the plunder of cotton after £hat date on the part of the "Northern armies and the adventurers who followed the armies was very extensive, and much of this cotton belonged to British subjects. Indeed, we believe that the bulk of it was hypothecated or sold to the holders of Confederate Stock. These persons will certainly urge their claims, and it will be a monstrous hardship if any of them are ousted by the limit in point of date. The time certainly ought to be extended till the end of the year 1865 to do full justico in this matter. We leave to the holders of that famous stock the task of pressing this point upon the Queen's Government. At any rato it seems to us that the latter portion of the treaty opens to them a chance of which they will not be slow to avail themselves.