Richmond Whig

THE NEUTRALITY OF THE BAHAMA WATERS.
[From the Nassau Guardian, Jan. 9]

We rejoice to perceive that the continual presence of Federal cruisers within the waters of this colony, in opposition to that policy of neutrality which it has been the desire of the imperial government to maintain between the belligerents of America, has met with strong disapprobation from the authorities at home, and we hail with much satisfaction the re-issue, from the Colonial Office, of her Majesty's instructions first published in January, 1862, with the view of "preventing, as far as possible, the use of her Majesty's harbors, ports and coasts, and the waters within her Majesty's territorial jurisdiction in aid of the warlike purposes of either belligerent."

Here the Guardian reprints the letter of the Duke of Newcastle to Governor Bayley, dated October 6, 1863, already published in our paper.—ED. Herald.

The Nassau Guardian continues:

Our merchantmen have been harassed too long by the operations of Federal cruisers in these waters, and the many instances we have had to record of vessels having been laid wait for by them at Stirrup's Cay and other places within this government, give ample proof that the law of neutrality has been utterly set at defiance. The entrance into neutral territory with a hostile purpose is held to be unlawful; and Lord Stowell, in respect to this matter, says: "There is no exception to the rule that every voluntary entrance into neutral territory with hostile purpose is absolutely unlawful. When the fact is established, it overrules every other consideration. The capture is done away; the property must be restored, notwithstanding that it may actually belong to the enemy."