It is curious to observe the complete silence of the
Conserva- tive Press on this new Circular of the Admiralty to Naval Com- manders, enjoining them anxiously to prop up the Slavery laws of all the States with which England has any intercourse. More- over, even at rural meetings where the Conservatives are the -leading power, the circular is noted with disgust.. At the Theme agrimltural and Tilorticialtural Association last week, where the Right Hon. J. W. Hsu* was present, Lieutenant Bacon, in re- sponding on behalf of the Army, Navy, and Volunteers, spoke of it with indignation, and expressed his hope that when Parliament -met, the order would be rescinded, and that British commanders would no longer be induced to act as the police-officers of the seas for the one purpose of enforcing the system of Slavery. When Mr. Henley came to speak, he was somewhat apologetic, and said that on reading the circular it had not struck him in the same manner as it had struck Lieutenant Bacon ; that he hoped it would make no practical difference in our existing =lei on the subject, and so forth. But that is surely very weak, for a sensible man like Mr. Henley. If it is to make no practical difference, what was the good of issuing so very remarkable a composition ? Was it really conceived not for the benefit of Naval commanders, but only as an electioneering device, to win favour with the despotic instincts of the British Residuum ? That would be a still more formidable theory of this portentous progeny of Mr. Ward Hunt's brain.
