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The Confederate steamer Nashville and the Yankee steamer Tuscarora--England's application of her neutral rights.
We do not allow our own little boys to disturb the thorough fares with squibs and crackers on the Fifth of November, and why should we submit to be annoyed with the two guns of the Nashville or the ‘"columbiads"’ of the Tuscarora, eager as these mighty men-of-war may be to make themselves noisy and disagreeable in the neighborhood of Caborne? The rule of international law is plain enough. Every nation has the right, if she likes, of giving hospitality to the ships-of-war of either or both the belligerent powers, and she may suffer them, or either of them, to bring in their prizes and submit them to her admiralty courts. But every nation has also the right to exclude them altogether, unless where such exclusion would be contrary to the general dictates of humanity. Our Government has made its choice, we think, very wisely, and has excluded both parties. Earl Russell, in this State paper, measures out equal measures to ships of war and privateers. He excludes both from all British ports for all warlike purposes. If they come into our waters, except in distress, they are to be warned away, and to depart in twenty-four hours. If they are in distress, they are to go as soon as they have obtained the repairs and supplies necessary to enable them to sail homeward. If any hostile ships or merchantmen that might be made their prey, are in the same harbor, they cannot follow them out until twenty-four hours ‘"law"’ has been allowed to the fugitives. All this is old law, which has been already enforced within the French ports without any public declaration such as this now made by our Foreign Office. The comparatively recent appliance of steam to war ships has made the question of coals a novelty in our International Law of Neutrals. The obvious idea of supplying a ship-of-war with only coals sufficient to take her to the nearest home port would not meet the present case, for the would spend these coals in a cruise and come back for more, being again in distress. Earl Russell meets this difficulty by a provision that a ship-of-war or a privateer shall not obtain coal within the British dominion, even to take her home, more than once in three months. We hope this will put an end to the annoyances that occur in Europe from these transatlantic quarrels. It would appear that war steamers, which must leave our ports in twenty-four hours, and can only come and coal once in three months, cannot be so troublesome. The fight in the New World may be mighty, and terrific, and sublime. It may be the real battle of Armageddon for aught we know. It may be like the shock of hostile earthquakes. We are constantly being told how terrible it is to be when Gen. McClellan gets well and his army is ready. We are content to believe or disbelieve it; but, as it comes to us in the Old World, it is like a war of frogs and mice, and is simply a small nuisance. Our friends over the water ought to remember that we have not the same reasons which they have for enduring such disturbances.--The revelations made by Mr. Dawes in Congress apply to America, and not England. It is pretty clear now that the war of the Federal States is kept up by a fictitious public enthusiasm, founded upon the squandering among the small class of political contractors and agitators of two millions of dollars a day. We have great faith is the purity and disin- terestedness of the inhabitants of Southampton and Portsmouth, and we are quite sure that they will urge the Government to execute the regulations they have put forth.--We hope, therefore, that after this notification, we may see no more of these ferocious penny steamers in our tranquil waters.Character of the Tuscarora in Port.
The Nashville, a Confederate privateeer having put into Southampton for repairs, the Tuscarora, a Federal war steamer, entered the port and waited patiently till her adversary would quit her asylum. From the first day when the Tuscarora took up her position, the captain has committed a series of irregularities. He sent some of his crew on shore, and actually stationed them in the dockyard to signal the departure of the Nashville. He repeatedly moored his vessel, slipped his moorings, and went to sea, and afterwards returned to them again, in direct violation of international law. No rule is more clearly established than that a belligerent vessel which enters a neutral port is not entitled to leave such port if a vessel belonging to the other belligerent Power is also there, without giving the latter the option of leaving first, nor can she then follow her before twenty-four hours have elapsed. This rule then, the captain of the Tuscarora has repeatedly violated. Our readers are doubtless aware that since the arrival of the Tuscarora an English frigate has been stationed in the Southampton water to enforce, should it be necessary, respect for the British territory and obedience to our jurisdiction. Had the Nashville left Southampton dock, and had the Tuscarora attempted to follow her, such an act would have been regarded by us as an act of hostility, and we would have at once interposed. At any moment, therefore, during the past few weeks, we might have been placed in a very awkward relation with the Federal States of America through the intemperance of a naval officer, whose general conduct since his arrival here has not been such as to impress us with the idea that he entertains unlimited respect for international law. The Government have felt it to be their duty to relieve the sense of uneasiness which this condition of things has occasioned, and, as prevention is better than cure, they have accordingly manifested their determination of enforcing certain regulations which, whilst it will put an end to the blockade at present existing at Southampton, will prevent the recurrence of a similar state of things.
The Daily Dispatch: February 24, 1862. Richmond Dispatch. 4 pages. by Cowardin & Hammersley. Richmond. February 24, 1862. microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mi : Proquest. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.
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