The Cabinet held its first meeting for the season on
Tues- day, and it seems pretty evident that the seizure of Mr. Laird's steam-rams has been approved. The Custom-house officers have been directed to take charge of the one most nearly ready for sea, and the " broad arrow" has been marked on her side. Lest Mr. Laird should not entertain the usual Tory reverence for symbols, a steam man-of-war was despatched to lie with her fires banked up between the ram and the sea, with orders to seize her by force if she stirred, and she has now been bound by a cable to the man-of- war's tender, a precaution which must greatly increase Mr. Laird's
self-satisfaction. It is not often that a British Government is obliged to employ its navy to see that a private citizen does not plunge Great Britain into a war, or that an Englishman, we may add, endangers the honour and interests of his country in order to escape penalties for non-fulfilment of a secret contract.
