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lised states.'* Mr. Wheaton carried this argument so far as to hold that Denmark, as a neutral State, was bound, in the absence of any positive prohibition or declaration to the contrary, to respect the military right of possession in the prizes of Paul Jones, which were brought into Danish ports by the American captors, and that Denmark had no right to deliver up those prizes to England, as she had in fact done. And the American Government actually demanded of Denmark an indemnity for those prizes; although at the time this occurrence took place, Denmark had not recognised the independence of the United States.

According, therefore, to this great American jurist, the Southern cruisers being in the same position to the United States as the cruisers of the American insurgents were to Great Britain in 1779-that is in the position of belligerents whose independence had not been recognised by foreign Powers,―would, in the absence of any positive declaration to the contrary, have had a right to presume the assent' of Great Britain to receive their prizes into her ports. We confess that we should have hesitated to claim an indemnity for the representatives of Paul Jones on such grounds as these; but the case is remarkable as showing the extreme length to which the American jurists have carried the rights of belligerents, engaged in civil war, and not yet recognised as independent Powers. The question of prizes was, however, settled by the very terms of Her Majesty's Proclamation (not as Mr. Jay says, subsequently,) by refusing to admit into British ports vessels captured by either party. Had the American Government adopted the Declaration of Paris in 1856, against privateering, which it rejected on the most selfish and discreditable grounds, it would have had a far better claim than it now professes to protest against the commissions of the Southern privateers. Within three months of the Declaration of Independence of 1776, the seas of Europe were swarming with privateers under the American flag, and the Southern Confederacy have in this respect, as in many others, followed exactly the precedent of the great American Revolution. Yet Mr. Jay has the impudence and folly to assert that it is the Queen's Proclamation which has given to the Southern cruisers 'a com'mission not simply to capture American property in American 'vessels, but to capture on the high seas American property on board of whatever vessel it may be found, and to carry the

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*This State Paper is quoted in the Introductory Remarks by Mr. W. B. Lawrence to the sixth edition of Wheaton's Elements of 'International Law.

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'neutral vessel and cargo into a belligerent port for further ⚫ examination.' And he adds that England and France have, by royal and imperial proclamation, countersigned letters of marque for the destruction of American ships, and which 'threaten with spoliation the commerce of the world.' If such mischievous trash as this can be uttered by a man of Mr. Jay's name and position, we may conceive what are the prevailing sentiments towards England and France of the less educated classes in the United States. We say England and France, because we rejoice to be able to state with confidence that throughout this unhappy dispute, the most entire agreement has subsisted on this question between the British and French Cabinets another proof, if any were needed, that their policy has no selfish or sinister ends, but solely the desire to do what in them lies to reduce the evils and to shorten the duration of a war which all the leading nations of Europe alike condemn and deplore.

Mr. Jay thinks he can distinguish between the hasty action of the British Cabinet and the deliberate conviction of the 'British people.' He is mistaken again. There has been no hasty action on the part of the Cabinet. There is no essential difference of opinion in the British people. The course adopted by Lord Palmerston and Earl Russell-men who certainly cannot be accused of hostility to America or of coolness on the subject of slavery would, we are certain, be followed by any other Minister of the Crown, and supported by Parliament. As for the time or manner proper for the recognition of States struggling for what they call independence, we see no reason to anticipate the result of the contest; the conduct of the British Government and of its allies will doubtless follow the course of events, which we are unable to foresee, much less to control: but we cannot forget that in all the revolutions of Europe the Americans have made it their invariable boast that all de facto Governments are at once recognised by the Ministers of the United States, without the slightest reference to the causes or circumstances which had given them birth.

The next three months, which include the season most favourable for military operations in America, will probably be marked by important events, though we can hardly hope for a decisive result. The operations of the present campaign are in fact almost confined to the Border States, and the utmost success of the Federal armies could hardly do more than regain a footing in those disputed territories, where the opinions of the people are divided. Nevertheless, in spite of the hatred engendered by this contest, we cannot anticipate that it will be

of very long duration. Democratic governments have seldom shown that tenacity of purpose which induces a nation to submit to all the privations of protracted and unsuccessful war; and the enormous scale on which modern warfare is carried on tends to limit its continuance. A foreign war may be waged for a long series of years; but a war like this absorbs the whole vital energy of the country, suspends all the sources of production, and makes the people at once the instrument and the victim of its destructive power. The process of exhaustion is therefore accelerated. Moreover, whatever the financial resources of the Union may be, the strain on them is too great to be prolonged indefinitely. Nearly half the country, and more than half the export trade, is at once cut off from the area of taxation; the import trade is crippled; credit is shaken; manufactures are partly stopped; the local taxation of the several States must have increased; the direct taxation of the Union has been raised to a war level; but even these taxes, if they can be raised, will only pay the interest on the loans which have been voted; the indirect taxation, which has hitherto sufficed for the wants of the Government, perishes with the stoppage of trade. The financial pressure in the South, and the want of the necessaries of life, which the South has hitherto drawn from the North or from foreign countries, must be still more grievous and intolerable; and it is not easy to comprehend whence the resources are derived which have enabled the Confederate States to maintain so large an army and to defend so vast a line of frontier. But although the efforts made on both sides in the present year have been extraordinary, war cannot be carried on for several campaigns without a reproductive power in the armies and finances of the country, which this contest is not likely to call forth. It is not probable, from the nature of the operations, and from the inexperience of the belligerents, that any decisive military successes will be obtained; and if we might hazard a conjecture as to the issue of the contest, it would be that the two parties, tired but not satisfied, exhausted but not reconciled, will at last sullenly submit to a necessary separation.

NOTE

ON MINUTE OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION OF THE 29TH JULY.

AT the time of the publication of the article on Popular Education in England which stood at the head of our last Number, we were wholly unacquainted with the intentions of the Government on the subject, and we learned, with equal surprise and satisfaction, the prompt and radical remedy which the Lords of the Education Committee were already prepared (as it now appears) to apply to the evils and shortcomings we had endeavoured to point out. The justification of the strictures we had been compelled to make on the then existing system of the Education Committee is therefore complete, since the heads of the department are so conscious of these defects, that they have since promulgated a minute which rescinds the whole of the former code of regulations for the distribution of the Government grants, and substitutes an entirely new system for that of 1846. Our concluding recommendation, that 'there is great reason 'to reconsider the present state of the question, and to modify the 'system which has hitherto been pursued' (p. 38.), has therefore been followed by decisive results almost as soon as it was uttered.

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So, too, has our observation (p. 16.) that the moment you begin 'to reduce the bounties or the protection which have fostered a highly 'artificial system, you create a considerable amount of individual 'hardship, and you must be prepared to face a vehement outcry, es'pecially from the managers of schools and the classes which have 'thriven so largely at the public cost.' This prediction has likewise been verified to the letter; the outcry against the New Minute is already vehement; it will probably become still more vehement; but it is raised mainly by those who have an interest, which they conceive to be a vested interest, in the distribution of funds under the minutes of 1846. The subject therefore will demand and obtain from the country and from Parliament the most thorough consideration, and we are glad of it. All that we take to be proved, at present, is, that, although the new system is not yet finally settled, and is quite open to public discussion, the old system is irrevocably condemned by the very persons who have administered it.

The remedy applied by the New Minute to the most prominent defects of the old system is direct and simple. The grants to schools are to be regulated by the results obtained; and the contribution of the State, paid to the managers in the form of a capitation grant, is to be applied by the managers to the several purposes of the school, including the wages of pupil-teachers and the augmentation of the master's salary. It by no means follows that the aid given to a well-conducted school will be diminished; but it will be paid in a different form, it will give greater liberty of action to school

managers, it will increase with the regular attendance of the children, and it will be conditional on good teaching; so that the assistance of the State, instead of degenerating into a screen for inefficiency, as it is too apt to become in all branches of the public service, will be a powerful stimulant to excellence and activity. We are satisfied that the principle on which the New Minute is founded is a sound principle, and is a great improvement on the former system. As to the details which have been adopted in this Minute to determine the proficiency of scholars and the consequent amount of the capitation, they have been made the subject of considerable animadversion, and no doubt they may be modified with some practical advantage when the principle of the New Minute is established.

We should scrupulously recognise the claims of the existing body of certificated teachers, who have accepted the conditions of the former system, and are entitled to all the advantages held out to them by that system, as long as they perform their part of the engagement. But the Government are bound to see that they teach in a satisfactory and efficient manner; and it would be absurd to contend that the possession of a high certificate on leaving a Training College gives a man a vested right to a pension from the State as long as he remains a teacher, whether the work be well or ill done. We know not whether the effect of the New Minute will be to reduce the number of young persons entering upon this profession; perhaps if that be the effect, it would not be an evil, as there is at present some danger of the supply of teachers exceeding the demand; but if the supply be diminished, that will be to the advantage of the existing class of certificated teachers. It cannot, however, be supposed, that a great and necessary change of this nature is to be effected without some inconvenience; but this inconvenience arises, in truth, not from the new system, but from the bad consequences of the old one,-not from the remedy, but from the disease it is necessary to cure. A considerable step has therefore been made in the right direction; and we are satisfied that when the New Minute is well understood by the country, it will be seen that the effect of it is to stimulate and strengthen the promoters of popular education, to improve the schools, to give more self-reliance to teachers, and to substitute a system capable of far wider application to the wants of the population, for one which had already reached its full limits, and which had become, from its extreme intricacy and its protective character, rather a drawback than an assistance to national education.

NOTE

ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF CARTHAGE.

An error has arisen from the inadvertent omission of a sentence in the article in our last Number on the topography of Carthage (p. 81. 1. 23.) which we are anxious to correct, as the effect of the

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