But if the example thus set by Her Majesty's Government should come to be generally adopted, and the principles of neutrality upon which it rests be recognized as a part of the code of international law, then it is not difficult to foresee the probable consequence. A new era in the relations of neutrals to belligerents on the high seas will open. Neutral ports in that event will, before long, become the true centres from which the most effective and dangerous enterprises against the commerce of belligerents may be contrived, fitted out, and executed. The existing restrictions upon the exploits of daring adventurers will rapidly become obsolete, and no new ones will be adopted. Ships, men, and money will always be at hand for the service of any Power sufficiently strong to hold forth a probability of repayment in any form, or adroit enough to secure a share of the popular sympathy in its undertakings. New 'Floridas,'' Alabamas,' Shenandoahs,' will appear on every sea. If such be the recognized law, I will not undertake to affirm that the country which I have the honour to represent would not in the end be as able to accommodate itself to the new circumstances as Great Britain. Whilst I cannot but think that every moderate statesman would deprecate such a change, which could hardly fail to increase the hazard of lamentable complications among the great maritime Powers, I cannot see an escape from it, if a nation-itself possessing a marine so numerous and extensively dispersed-decides to lead the way. Entertaining these views, it appears scarcely necessary for me to follow your Lordship further in the examination of details of former precedents either in English or American history. I am happily relieved from any such necessity by learning the conclusions to which Her Majesty's Government have arrived. Understanding it to decline the proposal of arbitration, which I had the honour, under instructions, to present, in any form, for reasons assigned by your Lordship, I nevertheless am happy to be informed that Her Majesty's Government are ready to consent to the appointment of a Commission, to which shall be referred all claims arising during the late civil war which the two Powers shall agree to refer to the Commissioners.' เ I have taken measures to make known, at the earliest moment, this proposal to my Government, and shall ask permission to await the return of instructions before giving a reply. Disclaiming all authority to express in advance any opinion on the part of my Government, I pray, at the same time, your Lordship's attention to a single circumstance which, without a previous agreement upon the great principles of international law involved in this controversy, may raise a difficulty in the way of accepting the proposal. At a first glance it would appear as if it were, in substance, identically the same with that long ago made by the Portuguese Government to that of the United States. The essence of the answer returned in that case happens to have lately passed under your eye, since it is found incorporated in your Lordship's note. I trust I cannot be suspected of a desire to imply that, in taking this step, Her Majesty's Government could have sought to appear either as proposing, on the one hand, a measure which it foresaw must be declined, or, on the other, one which, if accepted, could be so accepted only at the risk of a charge of disavowing the views of constitutional or international law entertained by my Government in former times. It may indeed be that, in this view, I may, after explanation, find that I have misconceived the nature of your Lordship's proposal on the view which my Government will take of it, in which case I pray you to excuse the suggestion, and consider it as made without authority, and solely in the hope of eliciting such explanation. I take great satisfaction in concluding this note by cordially responding to your Lordship's request, 'to join with Her Majesty's Government in rejoicing that the war has ended without any rupture between two nations which ought to be connected by the closest bonds of amity.' I likewise receive with great pleasure your Lordship's assurances that the efforts by which the Government and Congress of my country have shaken off slavery, 'have the warmest sympathies of the people of these kingdoms.' If, from painful observation in a service extended through four years, I cannot in candour yield my entire assent to this statement, as applied to a large and too influential portion of Her Majesty's subjects; if it has been my misfortune to observe in the process of so wonderful a revolution, a degree of coldness and apathy prevailing in many quarters, from which my countrymen had every right to expect warm and earnest sympathy; if throughout this great trial, the severity of which, few not well versed in the nature of our institutions could fully comprehend, the voice of encouragement from this side of the water has too often emitted a doubtful sound, I yet indulge the hope that the result arrived at will ultimately correct the hasty and harsh judgments that flowed from lack of faith and of confidence in our fidelity to a righteous cause. Of the friendly disposition in this regard of the members of Her Majesty's Government, and especially of your Lordship, I have never permitted myself to doubt. And yet in the midst of the gravest of our difficulties, I cannot forget that even your Lordship was pleased, in an official published despatch, to visit with the severity of your but too weighty censure, the greatest political measure of the late lamented President, that which, in fact, opened the only practicable way to the final attainment of the glorious end. Under such circumstances, I pray you not to be surprised if I am compelled not to disguise the belief that with my Government, as among my countrymen at large, there is still left a strong sense of injured feeling, which only time and the hopes of a better understanding in future, held out by the conciliatory strain in your Lordship's note, are likely to correct. Recognizing most fully the justice and propriety of the joint policy marked out in your concluding sentence, -I have, &c. (Signed) CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. Foreign Office, October 14, 1865. Sir, I have thought it best to wait for the answer to the reference you have made to your Government before replying to your last letter. But I observe that you have not clearly understood my proposal for the appointment of a Commission. That proposal is made in the following terms: 'Her Majesty's Government are ready to consent to the appointment of a Commission to which shall be referred all claims arising during the late civil war which the two Powers shall agree to refer to the Commissioners.' There are, I conceive, many claims upon which the two Powers would agree that they were fair subjects of investigation before Commissioners. But I think you must perceive that, if the United States Government were to propose to refer claims arising out of the captures made by the Alabama' and 'Shenandoah' to the Commissioners, the answer of Her Majesty's Government must be, in consistency with the whole argument I have maintained, in conformity with the views entertained by your Government in former times. I should be obliged, in answer to such a proposal, to say-'For any acts of Her Majesty's subjects committed out of their jurisdiction, and beyond their control, the Government of Her Majesty are not responsible.' I should say further, that the appointment of a Commission for such purpose would not be consistent with any practice usual among civilized nations, and that it is a principle well known and well understood that no nation is responsible for the acts of its citizens committed without its jurisdiction, and out of the reach of its control. I should have cleared up this point before, but I thought that the words 'which the two Powers shall agree to refer to the Commissioners' would put an end to any doubt upon the subject.-I am, &c. (Signed) RUSSELL. Mr. Adams to Earl Russell.—(Received October 18.) Legation of the United States, My Lord, I have the honour to acknowledge the reception of your note of the 14th instant, explanatory of some portions of a preceding one dated August 30 last. This has reached me just in season to enable me to dispense with the necessity of soliciting precisely that information. For although the Government which I have the honour to represent had already understood your Lordship's note as substantially in the same sense, it has instructed me to ask the confirmation of it which has now been supplied. I am now directed to inform your Lordship that the contents of your note of August 30 have received the most careful consideration. With regard to the reference which you were pleased to make to a friendly remark contained in the note which I had the honour to address to your Lordship on October 23, 1863-apparently considering it in the light of a formal proposal for arbitration-I am now desired, in view of the reasons given by your Lordship why such a mode of adjustment would not be acceptable to Her Majesty's Government, to state that, whatever may have heretofore been, or might now be, thought by the President of umpirage between the two Powers, no proposition of that kind for the settlement of existing differences will henceforward be insisted upon, or submitted on the part of my Government. The proposal of some form of Commission made by your Lordship still remains under consideration. To the end that my Government may be the better enabled to make a satisfactory reply to it, I am still under the necessity of soliciting more information in regard to the precise nature of the claims which Her Majesty's Government is disposed to agree to consider. I am instructed to venture so far as to ask the favour of your Lordship to distinguish as well what among the classes of claims it is willing, and what it would not be willing, to refer to the proposed Commission. -I pray, &c. (Signed) CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. Foreign Office, October 19, 1865. Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th instant, requesting to be informed of the precise nature of the claims which Her Majesty's Government would be willing to refer to a Commission; and I have to state to you in reply, that the information you request may take some time in preparation; but Her Majesty's Government will furnish it as soon as they can, consistently with the importance of the question.I am, &c. (Signed) RUSSELL. |