TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD PALMERSTON'S OPEN QUESTIONS : MR. M'LEOD'S CASE.
Oa the evening of Monday last, Lord STANLEY asked Lord PAL- MERSTON, " whether the Government had taken any, and if so, what steps for the liberation of Mr. M`Lcod? " The Foreign Secretary replied—" Of course the House would suppose, at least he so trusted, that her Majesty's Government would send, indeed they had already sent, certain instructions ; but until the conclu- sion of the correspondence, it was impossible these instructions should be final." On Tuesday evening, Lord STANLEY repeated his question. The Foreign Secretary admitted, that although Mr. M‘Lecon was arrested on the 12th of November, it was only on the flay that the question was put for the second time by Lord STAN- LEY in the House of Commons, that instructions were sent off to the British Minister at Washington—that Mr. Fox is at this moment acting upon " instructions respecting a case of a similar nature, which it was feared would have occurred." In other words, Lord PALMERSTON confessed that when, on Monday evening, he "trusted the House would suppose that her Majesty's Government would send, indeed had already sent, certain instructions," he trusted the House would suppose what was not the case. This unblushing avowal of having intentionally deceived the House in regard to a dispute which may possibly involve the country in a war, was received with the utmost coolness by that respectable body. Had any gentleman in a private society con- fessed that he Hill been guilty of such an equivocation, what would have been said to and of him ? The only difference between such a case and that of the Foreign Secretary is, that the deceptious equivocation of the latter is capable of producing infinitely more harm. The coolness with which the House listened to Lord PALMERSTON, conveys any thing but a flattering notion of its moral character. But passing over this consideration, as being perhaps beneath the consideration of such eminent statesmen, one might have expected that the escapade of the noble lord would have led them to see the impolicy of conceding such unlimited power of concealment as our diplomacy enjoys. Negotiations must occa- sionally occur, to the success of which it is necessary that perfect secrecy regarding their progress be observed until they are com- pleted. But this class of negotiations is the exception, not the rule. In ninety-nine cases out pf a hundred, the speedy attainment )f justice is promoted by publicity. The practice of our Foreign Office to claim and obtain from Parliament secrecy regarding all negotiations until they are terminated, is meant to protect, not the interest of the public, but the character of the negotiators. The concealment of the Foreign Office is a screen to hide official in- competency or laziness. Lord STANLEY truly said, in the course of the talk about Mr. M‘LEon's case, that everybody thought the affair of the Caroline had been settled long ago. And it would have been settled long ago had the Representatives of the nation done their duty and insisted upon knowing what the Foreign Minister was about. The consequence of the concealments of our diplomacy is, that we rarely know the real state of our negotiations until the ForeignMinister has committed us irretrievably, either by his indolence or precipitation, to some course of policy which under a system of publicity he would not have been permitted to adopt.* The whole of the blame does not rest upon the Minister : Par- liament must share it with him. Lord PALSIERSTON'S jaunty admission on Tuesday that he equivocated with the House on Monday, is rather startling to the uninitiated ; and his promise to lay upon the table of the House documents which have already appeared in the American newspapers, although be gives them to un- derstand at the same time that they are only part of the correspond. ence—his consent to contribute to the further diffusion of what he calls an incomplete and garbled collection of letters, without add- ing those which are necessary to make the whole truth appear—is scarcely less startling. But these sayings and doings of Lord PAL- MERSTON show that he knows the House of Commons with which he has to deal—that be knows all that Members ask of him is to . furnish them with something like an excuse for not doing their duty. He does know them ; for they cheered a valorous declaration made by the Foreign Secretary, which, coming from such a quarter, was almost tantamount to defying the United States to hostilities, at the same time that they permitted him to keep them entirely in the dark regarding his negotiations with the American Government, although enough had transpired to show that it was highly probable that the misunderstanding had been complicated and embittered by the false policy of delay.
Indeed, our present angry relations with the United States may be traced almost entirely to the postponing the settlement of disputes. The Boundary question has been left unsettled since the recog- nition of the Union as an independent State by the British 'Government. The frontier troubles arising out of the Canadian insurrection were embittered by the misunderstandings arising out of boundary squabbles ; and controversies arising out of this new source of dispute have in turn been left undecided, to beget or exasperate new causes of war. For this false policy of delay, both Governments have been responsible. Had either of them sincerely
• On Thursday evenin,,, Lord Jonw RUSSELL stretched his cautious se- crecy to an extent that looks very like practical burlesque. The Colonial Secretary " was not prepared to state what the precise instructions to the Niger expedition were." His Lordship was probably afraid that the Ministers from the States on the Niger, resident in London, might transmit the informa- tion to their respective Courts. wished to wind up the Boundary controversy, it must have been finished long ago. The fault has originated with the British Govern- ment, in that indolent apathy to the national interests which irre- sponsibility necessarily generates. The boundary between Canada and the United States was one of many questions which claimed the attention of Great Britain, and it was remote from the Central Govern- ment : Ministers were not pressed to do any thing in it, and they did nothing. On the other hand, the business of the Central Government of the United States was by no means so heavy and complicated as that which pressed upon the Government of this country, and the Canadian frontier was close at their door. It may be added, that the same amount of diplomatic concealment is not conceded to the American as to the British Government.' These are strong grounds for suspecting that the delay in settling the Boundary question was intentional on the part of the United States ; that the Americans have been deferring the settlement till the necessities of Great Britain should bring her to a yielding mood. Passing from the mischievousness of concealment and procrastina- tion to the merits of the arrest of Mr. MiLeon—against him, we conceive, the Americans have no maintainable case : their business lies with the British Government. Lord PAtmeasroN has declared in the House of Commons, " that her Majesty's Government do consider the capture of the Caroline, under the circumstances, to have been a proceeding perfectly justifiable." Mr. M`Lson—even supposing him to have taken a part in the capture of the Caroline, which is denied—would merely have been acting in obedience to his Government. For his share in that transaction he is not amenable to an American court of law. If he be tried, con- demned, and punished, by an American court of law, the trial is a mockery, the punishment a lawless outrage upon the person of a British subject. The whole proceedings will be a breach of the law of nations, for which the American Government is to be held responsible. It will not serve the purpose of the President or Congress to say that it is the doing of the State of New York—that the General Government of the Union cannot interfere. With the internal relations of the General Government and the States Governments no other country has any thing to do : but in ques- tions between the Union as a State and other States, the General Government cannot be allowed to juggle, by advancing claims as the representative of all the States, and avoiding responsibilities by throwing them upon individual States. Either it is the Government of the whole Union, or it is not. If it is the Government, let it oblige the State of New York to liberate Mr. M`Lzon, since the ques- tion of the Caroline is one between the nations, not between one of the States and an individual. If it is not the Government—if it cannot command the obedience of New York in this affair—let it stand neu- ter until this country and the State of New York settle the dispute. The government which cannot compel its own citizens to observe its treaties, cannot be acknowledged by other governments with safety to their citizens. The latter, fulfilling in good faith their obligations, would be under a disadvantage towards the other party, who made no scruple to break theirs. To acknowledge a government which could not command the obedience of its citizens, would-be granting impunity to an association of pirates. The President and Con- gress put themselves in the position of such a government, when they tell the British Government—taking upon itself the respon- sibility of the capture of the Caroline—that they cannot liberate Mr. M‘Leon, because he is within the jurisdiction of the State of New York. The pretensions of the State of Maine sonic time back, and the language held with regard to these pretensions in Congress, was almost equivalent to a similar declaration. Such a condition of affairs cannot be tolerated by other nations : they are not to suffer wrong because the Americans choose to make every State Government an imperium in imperil). The Americans must purchase the protection of international law by obeying that law : if they bring their Union into the field to enforce the rights of each individual State composing it, they must likewise bring their Union into the field to enforce their obligations.
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