NEWS OF THE WEEK.
'FRE most stirring subject which has been discussed in Parliament during the week, and in its possible consequences the most im- portant, is the newly-revived dispute with the United States respecting the destruction of the Caroline steamer. This is one of Lord PALMERSTON'S open questions. The steamer was employed by certain of the Canadian rebels, to ply between Navy Island, a part of the British territory in the great river of Canada, of which the rebels held posiession' and the coast of the State of New York. According to the British version of the story, the vessel was used for the conveyance of munitions of war: the United States story, without positively denying the use imputed to the steamer by the British, asserts that she was engaged as a ferry- boat, and that at the time of the attack the warlike stores which - she had on board consisted of a single unloaded pocket-pistol. The boat, however, is admitted by the United States Government to have been in the service of the " patriots." As a vessel openly used by those patriots, the commanding officer immediately opposed to the rebels gave orders for it to be attacked : it was attacked by the British, on the 20th December 1837, followed to the New York shore, forcibly seized, and destroyed. A complaint was immediately forwarded by the local authorities of New York to the Central Go- vernment, and a demand for compensation was made to the British Minister at Washington l . who resisted it, on the authority ofcoun- ter-statements which he had received from the Canadian Govern- ment. The correspondence on the subject was all transmitted to the British Government in February 1838. Three years have elapsed ; but our Foreign Office has avoided giving any definite answer to the criminatory demand of the United States. Mean- while the destruction of the steam-boat had been approved by the Colonial Office and the Local Government in Canada. In Novem- ber last, Mr. M‘Lson, who had been a Colonel in the Canadian Volunteers during the rebellion, went to the town of Lockport, in the State of New York; and there he was seized on a charge of murder and arson, as one of the persons concerned in destroying the steamer. Mr. 1111‘Lson denies that he was so concerned ; but, inde- pendently of this defence, Mr. Fox, the British Minister at Wash- ington, demanded his release, on the ground that all persons en- gaged in the attack on the vessel were acting under the orders of the constituted military authorities of Canada. This demand was resisted by the United States Government, on the plea that the Central Administration had no power to interfere with the criminal laws of the State of New York ; and on the further plea, that if it could interfere, the case was one which did not justify interference, as 'the British had unwarrantably attacked, in the waters of a coun- try at peace with England, an unarmed vessel, employed only in a peaceable vocation. The United States Government was sup- ported in this view by several members of the House of Representa- tives, who clamoured for the blood of the British prisoner, if he "should prove to have been "guilty "—that is, actually concerned in the attack on the Caroline. Such is the shape in which the question came over by the last accounts. Naturally alarmed at this untoward posture of affairs, the public anxiety found a voice in both Houses of Parliament on Monday night. In the House of Lords, the Premier had no difficulty in quieting Lord MOUNTCASHEL with general assurances about the safety of " her Majesty's subject," and the vindication of the na- tional honour. In the House of Commons, Lord STANLEY, after an able recapitulation of the case, asked Lord PALMERSTON whether he had information on the subject ; whether that information would be communicated to Parliament ; and whether the British Govern- ment had taken steps to protect Mr. M'LEOD? With his accus- tomed easy assurance; Lord PALMERSTON spoke a good many roundabout sentences—to the effect that he had received informa- tion ; that the British Government had taken steps, but had not -given "final instructions," though of course they would take what-
ever steps were necessary ; and that he was not disposed to give any information to the House while negotiations were pending, though there would be no objection to give the documents which had already been published by the American papers. This offer created a laugh, which perhaps made Lord PALMERSTON suppose that he had said something witty. Its indecent levity was very properly rebuked by Lord STANLEY—who returned to the charge on Tuesday : he reminded Lord PALMERSTON that he had not asked for an imperfect portion of the correspondence, and told him that the official communications of the Government to Parliament ought not lobe regulated by the publications of foreign newspapers. Lord PALMERSTON then declared, upon further questioning, that he had only received complete information from Mr. Fox on Satur- day last, and therefore had only been able to send " tival instruc- tions" to Mr. Fox on that very Tuesday ; that Mr. Fox had hitherto been acting on provisional instructions sent a year or more back for another case which might have occurred ; and that the British Go- vernment fully adopted the act of those who had destroyed the Caroline,' and had signified that approval to the United States Government.
The latest communications from America were brought by the Cambridge packet-ship : intelligence conveyed by that vessel reached London at the beginning of last week : how was it, then, that Lord PALMERSTON was left without complete information till the Saturday ? and how was it that he waited from Saturday till Tuesday before he sent out his " final instructions" ? Surely it was not the vague intimation in a provincial American paper, that Mr. M'LEOD had been released on bail, which justified Lord PAL- MERSTON to himself in waiting until Lord STANLEY roused him to a sense of his duty and of the public anxiety upon the subject ?
