promising by their unlawful acts the neutrality which her Majesty has proclaimed and desires to preserve, even to the extent of involving the two nations in the horrors of a maritime war. For these reasons I am instructed to say, that they frankly confess themselves unwilling to regard the present hour as the most favourable to a calm and candid examination by either party of the facts or the principles involved in cases like the one now in question. Though indulging a firm conviction of the correctness of their position in regard to this and other claims, they declare themselves disposed, at all times, hereafter as well as now, to consider in the fullest manner all the evidence and the arguments which her Majesty's Government may incline to proffer in refutation of it; and in case of an impossibility to arrive at any common conclusion, I am directed to say there is no fair and equitable form of conventional arbitrament or reference to which they will not be willing to submit.

"Entertaining these views, I crave permission to apprise your lordship that I have received directions to continue to present to your notice claims of the character heretofore advanced, whenever they arise, and to furnish the evidence on which they rest, as is customary in such cases, in order to guard against possible ultimate failure of justice from the absence of it..

On the 26th October Earl Russell sent a despatch to Mr. Adams, in answer, to the following effect:—

"I have had the honour to receive your letter of the 23rd instant. In that letter you inform me that you are instructed to say that the Government of the United States must continue to insist that Great Britain has made itself responsible for the damages which the citizens of the United States sustain by the depredations of the vessel called the Alabama. But towards the conclusion of your letter you state that the Government of the United States are not disposed to act dogmatically or in a spirit of litigation; that they desire to maintain amity as well as peace; that they fully comprehend how unavoidably reciprocal grievances must spring up from the divergence of the policy of the two countries in regard to the present insurrection. You add further on, that the United States frankly confess them

selves unwilling to regard the present hour as the most favourable to a calm and candid examination by either party of the facts or the principles involved in cases like the one now in question. With this declaration her Majesty's Government may well be content to await the time when a calm and candid examination of the facts and principles involved in the case of the Alabama may, in the opinion of the Government of the United States, usefully be undertaken.

"In the meantime, I must request you to believe that the principle contended for by her Majesty's Government is not that of commissioning, equipping, and manning vessels in our ports to cruize against either of the belligerent parties-a principle which was so justly and unequivocally condemned by the President of the United States in 1793, as recorded by Mr. Jefferson in his letter to Mr. Hammond of the 13th of May of that year. But the British Government must decline to be responsible for the acts of parties who fit out a seeming merchant-ship, send her to a port or to waters far from the jurisdiction of British courts, and there commission, equip, and man her as a vessel of war. Her Majesty's Government fear that if an admitted principle were thus made elastic to suit a particular case, the trade of ship-building, in which our people excel, and which is to great numbers of them a source of honest livelihood, would be seriously embarrassed and impeded. I may add that it appears strange that notwithstanding the large and powerful naval force possessed by the Govern ment of the United States, no efficient measures have been taken by that Government to capture the Alabama.

"On our part I must declare that to perform the duties of neutrality fairly and impartially, and at the same time to maintain the spirit of British law and protect the lawful industry of the Queen's subjects, is the object of her Majesty's Government, and they trust that the Government of the United States will recognize their earnest desire to preserve, in the difficult circumstances of the present time, the relations of amity between the two nations."

On the 29th October Earl Russell wrote to Mr. Adams:

"I acquainted you, in my letter of the 2nd instant that the matters connected with the

your

proceedings of the Confederate steamer Alabama at the Cape of Good Hope, to which letter of the 29th September referred, were under the consideration of her Majesty's Government. Those matters were,-1. The capture by the Alabama of the United States' vessel Sea Bride, within, as was alleged, the territorial jurisdiction of Great Britain. 2. The character of the Alabama herself. 3. The manner in which the Tuscaloosa, alleged to be a tender of the Alabama, was dealt with by the authorities of the Cape.

"On these several points I have to state to you-1. That her Majesty's Government are satisfied by the concurrent testimony of the colonial and naval authorities at the Cape, that at the time of capture the Sea Bride was considerably more than three miles distant from the nearest land. 2. That as regards the character of the Alabama, that vessel is entitled to be treated as a ship of war belonging to a belligerent power, and that neither the Governor nor any other British authority at the Cape was entitled to exercise any jurisdiction over her. 3. That as regards the Tuscaloosa, ́although her Majesty's Government would have approved the British authorities at the Cape if they had adopted towards that vessel a course different from that which was adopted, yet the question as to the manner in which a vessel under such circumstances should, according to the tenour of her Majesty's orders, be dealt with, was one not altogether free from uncertainty. Nevertheless, instructions will be sent to the British authorities at the Cape for their guidance in the event of a similar case occurring hereafter, and her Majesty's Government hope that under those instructions nothing will for the future happen to admit of a question being raised as to her Majesty's orders having been strictly carried out. Copies of the reports from the colonial and naval authorities on the matters in question will be sent to her Majesty's Minister at Washington, who will thereby be enabled to give to the Government of the United States any further explanation they may desire to obtain on the subject."

out of the depredations of the Alabama and other vessels issuing from British ports appears to render further discussion of the merits of the question unnecessary. It is only to preclude the possibility of any inference growing out of an omission to notice it, that I beg permission to make a single remark in connection with your lordship's observation that the British Government declines to be responsible for the acts of parties who fit out a seeming merchantship.' So far as the vessels now complained of are concerned, I think no reasonable doubt can be entertained, from the evidence which was obtained before their departure, that they never bore the semblance of merchant-ships, even to her Majesty's officers who reported upon them.

"I now beg permission to lay before her Majesty's Government a number of memorials and other papers connected with the depredations of the vessel formerly called the Oreto, and now the Florida, which I am instructed to request may be disposed of in the manner indicated in my note of the 23rd instant, to which your lordship's was in answer."

On the 20th January, 1864, Mr. Adams sent to Earl Russell copies of certain papers relating to the case of the barque Sea Bride, of Boston, captured by the Alabama, which capture was affirmed to have been made within the maritime jurisdiction of Great Britain, in Table Bay at the Cape of Good Hope; but Earl Russell answered that the Governor of the Cape was satisfied that the capture was not made within British jurisdiction, and her Majesty's Government, upon perusal of the evidence, arrived at a similar conclusion.

THE TUSCALOOSA.

Correspondence respecting the "Tuscaloosa.”

On the 26th September, 1862, Mr. Hammond received from the Secretary to the Admiralty, a copy of a letter from Rear Admiral Sir Baldwin Walker, dated Simon's Bay, the 29th August, stating that the Alabama had captured a vessel steering for Table Bay, and that the tender, Tuscaloosa, a sailing barque of 500 tons, with two small rifled guns and ten men, arrived in Simon's Bay. The Georgia and Florida,other Confederate steamers, were also off that coast. In the

presence of such facts the admiral wrote to the governor asking whether the Tuscaloosa ought to be looked upon in the light of a prize, she never having been condemned in a prize court. And in answer the governor wrote that the vessel was to be regarded as a tender and not as a prize. Admiral Walker however apprehended that a captured vessel could not be considered a vessel of war simply because she had a few men and two small guns on board in order to disguise her real character as a prize. The opinion of the Attorney-General being that if the vessel received the two guns from the Alabama, or other Confederate vessel of war, or if the person in command of her has a commission of war, or if she be commanded by an officer of the Confederate navy, in any of these cases there would be a sufficient setting forth as a vessel of war to justify her being held to be a ship of war, but that if these points should be decided in the negative, she must be held to be only a prize and ordered to leave forthwith. To which Admiral Walker answered that as there were two guns on board, and an officer of the Alabama in charge of her, the vessel appeared to come within the meaning of a vessel of war.

On the 30th September, 1863, Mr. Hammond received from Sir F. Roger copy of a despatch from the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, reporting the arrival of the Confederate steamer Alabama, that she had captured the Sea Bride, within four miles from land, and that the United States' consul had urged that she should either be seized or not allowed to remain a single day. The consul insisting that such a capture was a violation of neutrality, suggested that the prize crew on board the Sea Bride should be removed and that the vessel be put in charge of a crew from her Majesty's ship Valorous. But the Governor

On the 10th December Mr. Hammond received from Mr. Elliot copy of a despatch addressed by the Duke of Newcastle to the Governor of the Cape, giving his opinion on the question of the Georgia, Alabama, and Tuscalora. The capture of the Sea Bride having been made beyond the three miles from the shore could not be interfered with, but she ought not to have been brought within the distance of two miles. The Alabama must be treated as a vessel of war. But the Tuscaloosa had nothing giving her a warlike character.

On the 15th February, Mr. Hammond received from the Secretary to the Admiralty enclosing a letter from Admiral Walker, reporting that the Tuscaloosa having again entered Simon's Bay, under the Confederate flag, had been detained by the British authorities until she could be transferred to her lawful owners for violation of her Majesty's orders for the maintenance of neutrality, the vessel being considered as an uncondemned prize, captured by the Confederate vessel of war Alabama. On the receipt of this communication the Duke of Newcastle immediately wrote to the Governor of the Cape to restore the Tuscaloosa to the lieutenant of the Confederate States who lately commanded her, or if he should have left the colony to retain her until she could be handed over to some person who might have authority from Captain Semmes, of the Alabama, or from the Government of the Confederate States to receive her. The reason given for this order was that since the Tuscaloosa had first been allowed to enter the port of Cape Town and to depart, the captain of the Alabama was entitled to assume that he might equally bring her a second time into the same harbour.

ENLISTMENT OF BRITISH SEAMEN.

In October, the Secretary to the Admiralty communicated that the Confederate States' steam-vessel Georgia went to sea from Simon's Bay, on the 29th August, and that on the following afternoon the Federal ship of war, Vanderbilt, proceeded in search of the Confederate ships which had lately visited the Cape of Good Hope.

British Seamen at Queenstown, on board the United States' Ship of War " Kearsarge."

On the 21st November, 1863, Mr. Arbuthnot, of the Treasury, wrote to Mr. Hammond, informing him that the Commissioner of Customs had reason to doubt that the United States' war sloop, Kearsarge, had taken on board British subjects at Queenstown. And on the 25th Earl Russell received information of the

same from Mr. Mason, through the Earl of Donoughmore. Consequently Earl Russell communicated the matter to Mr. Adams, complaining that the facts stated proved a deliberate violation of the laws of this country within one of its harbours, by commissioned officers of the navy of the United States. Mr. Adams, in answer, stated that he would obtain the necessary explanation of the matter, and subsequently he remitted a note from the United States' consul, at Cork, formally denying the whole statement. Further information, however, came from Hastings and other ports that many men were being enlisted for the Kearsarge. On the 16th December, Earl Russell again wrote to Mr. Adams, desiring him to make further inquiry from his own consul as to the part taken by him in the enlistment of these men. And on the same day Mr. Hammond received a despatch from Mr. Bruce, on the part of Sir George Grey, stating that the papers had been forwarded to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in order that his excellency might, if he saw no objections, give the necessary directions for the prosecution of the men so enlisted under the Foreign Enlistment Act, in accordance with the opinion of the law officers of the Crown in this country.

RECRUITMENT IN IRELAND. Correspondence respecting Recruitment in Ireland for the Military Service of the United States.

On the 20th January, 1864, Mr. Hammond received information from Mr. Waddington, on the part of Sir George Grey, to the effect that a man named P. H. Phinney had arrived from America, in Dublin, for the object, as it was supposed, of enlisting men for the American army. And on the 24th Mr. Waddington sent copy of a letter from Mr. Lock Penny enquiring on behalf of Messrs. Sale and Searle, of Liverpool, whether they could ship passengers under the following agreement :

Proposed Agreement.

"We, the undersigned, hereby agree with Patrick H. Phinney that in consideration of the said Patrick H. Phinney advancing the money necessary for the payment of our respective passages to Boston, in the United States of America,-that we, each of us hereto

signing our names (or making our marks in presence of witnesses), hereby agree with said P. H. Phinney, that we will on our arrival at Boston aforesaid, commence to labour for said Patrick H. Phinney or his assigns, either on the Charlestown waterworks, in the City of Charlestown, or the Webster and Southbridge railroad, in the employ of Wall and Lynch; or the Boston, Hartford, and Erie railroad, in the employ of E. Crand, in the State of Massachusetts; or on the Pacific railroad; or for the Bear Valley Coal Company, in the employ of George P. Sanger; or for the Franklin Coal Company, in the employ of E. C. Bates, in the State of Pennsylvania.

"And we hereby agree that we will, each of us hereto signing as aforesaid, continue to labour and work to our best ability for the said P. H. Phinney, or his assigns, for the term of twelve months, from the date of our arrival in said Boston, for and at the rate of dollars per month, in addition to our board and lodging, which is to be furnished to us by the said P. H. Phinney.

"And we each of us hereby agree that we will repay to said P. H. Phinney, or to his assigns, the amount which shall have been paid by the said P. H. Phinney, or his assigns, for each of our passages to Boston as aforesaid, and also those of us who shall have had our inland passages paid for us by the said P. H. Phinney, or any other advances which may have been made to us by the said P. H. Phinney, or that the same shall be deducted from or repaid from our wages first earned as aforesaid, and paid to said P. H. Phinney or his assigns by our employers.

"It is understood that the wages aforesaid of each of us will commence within one week after our arrival in Boston, or as soon as we commence to work.

Names,

Where from, Description."

On the 10th February, 1864, Mr. Hammond received a communication from the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners informing him that the number of emigrants, single men, to the United States, in 1863, had been 10,000 more than the experience of the three years preceding, which furnished some grounds. for conjecture that recruitment may have gone

on to about that extent. The total emigration had been, 120,432, in 1859; 128,469, in 1860; 91,770, in 1861; 121,214, in 1862; and 223,758, in 1863; and to the United States, 70,303, in 1859; 87,500, in 1860; 49,764, in 1861; 58,706, in 1862; and 146,813, in 1863. On the 27th February, Mr. Hammond received from Mr. Waddington a report of the Dublin police from the Irish Government, describing the embarkation of the first party of emigrants despatched by the agency of P. H. Phinney.

REMOVAL OF BRITISH CONSULS. Correspondence respecting the Removal of British Consuls from so-called Confederate States of America.

On the 28th June, 1863, Earl Russell received a despatch from Consul Moore, dated Richmond, June 9th, informing him that the Confederate Government had annulled his exequatur for the reason that he had corresponded with the Secretary of War, at Richmond, on matters beyond his consular jurisdiction after receiving an intimation from the Secretary of State not to do so. In a despatch from Lord Lyons, on the same subject, dated Washington, June 16th, his Lordship said—

"I think that so far as this legation is concerned, it would be an advantage that its connection with the consular officers in territory held by the Confederates should be dissolved. The communication is so slow and uncertain that intelligence seldom reaches me from those officers in time to be of any value. For the same reason they cannot obtain special instructions from me in any sudden contingency, while general instructions to them would be sent with much greater advantage from the Foreign Office than from this legation. The communications between the consuls in the South and the legation have always tended to give rise to suspicion in the United States; they have now been denounced as offensive by the Confederate authorities. Your lordship will observe that notwithstanding my repeated instructions to the consuls never to allude to me or to the legation in their communications with those authorities, and notwithstanding the care which has been taken at your lordship's office to address instructions to the

consuls directly instead of desiring me to transmit them, Mr. Benjamin in his despatch to Mr. Mason dwells on the connexion between the consuls and this legation as the main reason for the measures which Mr. Davis has adopted.

"There was one great advantage in the existing arrangement which can hardly be said to exist any longer. We had for some time consuls at the Southern ports recognized as such by both belligerents, and this was convenient in cases in which ports in the South were attacked by the Federals. I have not heard of any objection having been made by the Confederates to Mr. Fullarton as acting consul at Savannah, but the recognition by them of Mr. Walker as acting consul at Charleston, and of Mr. Cridland as acting consul at Mobile, appears to be very doubtful; and even supposing all these acting consuls to be recognized, the Confederate authorities will still refuse to allow them to interfere in behalf of British subjects beyond the exact limits to which the jurisdiction of the respective consulates extends, and this will leave the greater part of the British subjects in the Confederate States without protection."

Among the documents inserted there was a letter from Mr. Benjamin stating that the President had determined to permit no direct communication between consuls and consular agents of foreign countries residing within the Confederacy, and the functionaries of such foreign Governments residing in the enemy's lines.

The passage in future of consular couriers, messengers, or of consuls, or consular agents themselves through the Confederate lines to the enemy was accordingly prohibited, and foreign officials would be allowed to communicate with their Governments only directly or through neutral countries.

On the same subject Mr. Benjamin sent a despatch to Mr. Mason, Commissioner of the Confederate Government, in London, making known the causes of the late revocation of the exequatur to the British consul at Richmond.

On the 30th August, 1863, Earl Russell received a despatch from Acting Consul Cridland, dated Mobile, June 15, that having been appointed to that consulate by Lord Lyons, he was at first recognized, but that soon after