Nothing has come out yet as to the nature of
Admiral Pierre's arbitrary proceedings at Tamatave, or of the demands made on the French Government by Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet.
The letters from Tamatave seem to show that there was very great irritation on the part of the English there at the high- handedness of the French commander, and it is clear that in denying Mrs. Shaw,—who only readied Tamatave to find her husband in arrest,--the opportunity even of speaking a few words to him from a boat alongside of the French man-of-war, Admiral Pierre acted with unnecessary harshness. Still, there is, we hope, no chance of any international misunderstanding, and the British Government are wise in not making any de- tailed statement to Parliament on the subject, while negotiations are still going on between them and France. It would be hardly possible to make such a statement without irritating English feeling, and if English feeling were once irritated, it would be hardly possible for the Government of France to make repaaation without seeming to the sensitive French people to be yielding to threats.
