THE CAGLIARI. Ix can scarcely be that the last word
in this business of the Cag- liari has been spoken. The two Englishmen, Park and Watt, have received their indemnity of 30001.: the vessel is once again in the hands of its owners, and the tortured crew are it is to be hoped dispersed to their several homes. But what of the indemnity for
them We are quite satisfied of the value to the world of that variety of the human species called Englishman, and we know that our first duty is to ourselves. But we cannot view with per- fect satisfaction the silence of the English press upon the subject of the perfectly unanswerable claim of the Sardinian sailors to receive, as the English victims have done, damages for the wanton injuries inflicted on them. Selfishness is indecorous to say the least of it. We do not at all propound the doctrine of a meddling quixotic international knight-errantry. The whole future of Europe is too clouded and uncertain for this country to pledge it- self to any particular form of militant doctrine. But we do most emphatically assert the duty of acting in special sympathetic con- cert with states like Sardinia, when the subjects of both nations have claims of an equal nature, and claims which com- mend themselves at once to the heart of the philanthropist, and the cool judgment of the statesman. The course taken by Lord Malmesbury in this matter will have been objec- tionable in a high degree, if the separation of the case of the English and Sardinian sailors be carried much further than it has been up to the present moment. It may have been wise for each nation to make the demand for the release and indemnity of its subjects separately. For it is not desirable for the sake of Sardinia that she should appear as a mere satellite of England, a merely protected and subordinate state. Such a position is unsuitable to the country whose vote in the Paris Congress is in theory equal to that of Russia. It was well, also, for the interests of peace that the case of the English prisoners should. be first dealt with in order to establish the clear precedent, which should justify Sardinia in demanding, and give Naples some sort of graceful air, if so nefarious a government can be invested with a grace, in granting compensation. All, therefore, has been thus far so ordered, up to the present moment, as to be justifiable, in the eye of reason, whatever may have been the motive or neces- sity actuating English statesmen. It is fortunate if the exigen- cies of an Austrian alliance have proved reconcileable with the right and true course upon this thorny question of the Cagliari.
But there remains this further difficulty of indemnity, which can scarcely be evaded by the Sardinian Government, even sup- posing that a statesman of the character and temperament of Count Cavour were willing to be the agent of a degraded policy. It is the simple truth, or appears so to bystanders who scrutinize with sympathy, but with impartiality, the position of Sardinia in Europe and Italy, that her very safety lies in the uncompromising assertion of her rights. To stand still, or swerve from the most vigorous assertion of her position, would be to fall under the hoof of the reaction with a speedy ruin. Besides, Sardinia has a Parliament ; and no Minister, in a state where public discussion holds sway, could possibly maintain his power under the stigma of abandoning his countrymen in so clear a case as this of the Cagliari crew. We do not stop to argue or demonstrate the point that the Sardinian sailors have precisely the same right to receive a money compensation for their great wrongs as had Park and Watt. The intellect that can entertain a doubt upon the matter must be one with which we do not feel our small reasoning powers competent to deal. The whole proceedings of the Neapolitan Go- vernment were malignant, fraudulent, and piratical to a degree that should make men pause when they draw some sharp distinc- tions, familiar to ordinary discourse, between eastern and western states. We have sought in vain for a shadow of excuse for that Government : and cannot find one except by making all sorts of gratuitous hypotheses as to facts, bearing no likeness to the real ones, after the manner of some of the authorities that have handled the question.
It would therefore seem impossible that, in so plain a case, the Sardinian Government can do otherwise than prefer a claim for money compensation, and impossible that our Government to do otherwise than support that claim by the whole moral and ma- terial power of the country. It concerns our dignity, in its dear- est part, not to be satisfied with justice to the Englishman alone, under the peculiar circumstances of this ease. It concerns our position as chief maritime state of the world that the close of this sad affair should be the vindication, in ample justice to all parties, of the clear principles of international law, rather than of mere English grievances. And it would be the most prudent and conservative course, in the interest of the future of Europe, not to allow a rankling discontent with another plain wrong to swell that mass of unsatisfied hatred which threatens, at every op- portunity, to convulse the world. It is time that English states- men dealt with each case upon its merits, and less upon some foregone conclusion depending on an alliance, or the consensus of the diplomatic salons to keep down the revolution. And we are quite satisfied that the English public would not endure that Sardinia should be either abandoned, or receive a merely luke- warm support in the prosecution of claims, to the justice of which we have beforehand, by our own proceedings, virtually pledged our judgment and our faith.
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