Mr. Adams to the Earl of Clarendon.—(Received Legation of the United States, My Lord, I have the honour to inform your Lordship that the notes elicited by the proposal for a Commission to consider certain classes of claims growing out of the late difficulties in the United States, made by your predecessor, the Right Honourable Earl Russell, in his letter addressed to me on August 30 last, have received the careful consideration of my Government. Adhering, as my Government does, to the opinion that the claims it has presented, which his Lordship has thought fit at the outset to exclude from consideration, are just and reasonable, I am instructed to say that it sees now no occasion for further delay in giving a full answer to his Lordship's proposition. I am directed, therefore, to inform your Lordship that the proposition of Her Majesty's Government for the creating of a joint Commission is respectfully declined. I pray, &c. (Signed) CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. The Earl of Clarendon to Mr. Adams. Foreign Office, December 2, 1865. Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 18th ultimo, having reference to the letter which my predecessor addressed to you on the 3rd ultimo. There are many statements in your letter which I should be prepared to controvert if it were not that Her Majesty's Government consider that no advantage can result from prolonging the controversy, of which the topics are generally exhausted, but which might possibly, if continued, produce acrimony into the relations between this country and the United States; two nations who from kindred origin and mutual interest should desire to be knit together by bonds of the closest friendship. Such a desire is strongly felt by the Government and people of this country, and Her Majesty's Government do not doubt that it is shared by the Government and people of the United States. While abstaining, therefore, from any discussion of the passages of your letter to the correctness of which I am unable to subscribe, it is nevertheless my duty in closing this correspondence to observe, that no armed vessel departed during the war from a British port to cruise against the commerce of the United States, and to maintain that throughout all the difficulties of the civil war by which the United States have lately been distracted, but in the termination of which no nation rejoices more cordially than Great Britain, the British Government have steadily and honestly discharged all the duties incumbent on them as a neutral Power, and have never deviated from the obligations imposed on them by international law. I am, &c. (Signed) CLARENDON. The Earl of Clarendon to Sir F. Bruce. Foreign Office, December 26, 1865. Sir, Mr. Adams called upon me by appointment, and read and left with me a copy of a despatch from Mr. Seward respecting the 'Shenandoah,' and the surrender of that ship to the United States authorities. I inclose a copy of the despatch. I told Mr. Adams that my sincere desire to do and say nothing that could impair our friendly relations with the United States alone prevented me from replying to the despatch at once, and in the terms which I thought it deserved; and that if it was answered it would be so in writing. Mr. Adams said that was the course which he expected I should take. A lengthened discussion then ensued as to the manner in which the obligations of neutrality had been performed by this country during the late civil war. It was conducted without acrimony, and was put an end to by myself, as leading to no useful or practical result. I, however, asked Mr. Adams whether it would not be both useful and practical to let bygones be bygones, to forget the past, and turn the lessons of experience to account for the future. England and the United States, I said, had each become aware of the defects that existed in international law, and I thought it would greatly redound to the honour of the two principal maritime nations of the world to attempt the improvements in that code which had been proved to be necessary. It was possible, I added, that the wounds inflicted by the war were still too recent, and that the ill-will towards England was still too rife, to render such an undertaking practicable at the present moment; but it was one which ought to be borne in mind, and that was earnestly desired by Her Majesty's Government, as a means of promoting peace and abating the horrors of war; and a work, therefore, which would be worthy of the civilization of our age, and which would entitle the Governments which achieved it to the gratitude of mankind. Mr. Adams, in reply, said the law of England, in its international application, stood greatly in need of amendment; but he gave me no encouragement to expect that his Government would co-operate with that of Her Majesty in the course of proceeding which I had suggested. You will, however, avail yourself of such opportunities as you may think fitting to bring the subject under the consideration of Mr. Seward or the President, and you can neither exaggerate the importance attached to it by Her Majesty's Government or the satisfaction it would give them to co-operate with the Government of the United States in a work of which the benefit would be universal. -I am, &c. CLARENDON. 6 (Signed) Mr. Adams to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Received December 28.) Legation of the United States, My Lord,-Entertaining no desire to re-open the questions already discussed in connection with the steamer Shenandoah,' I propose to submit the accompanying letter ૨ from the Consul of the United States at Liverpool, and the two depositions to which it refers, solely for the purpose of placing more fully on the record what appear to be the facts connected with her cruise. The points to which I desire particularly to call your Lordship's attention are these: 1. In your note to me of the 2nd instant you state 'that no armed vessel departed during this war from a British port to cruise against the commerce of the United States.' 2. In your note of the 11th of November your Lordship is pleased to rely on the authority of the commander of theShenandoah' for the statement that he committed no depredations upon the commerce of the United States after he knew that the rebellion had been suppressed. 3. In the same note you state, on the authority of the report of the officer sent to muster the crew, that there were no persons known to be British subjects on board. On the other hand, with the aid of the narrative and list of the crew herewith submitted, I trust it may be made to appear: 1. That the Sea King' did depart from a British port armed with all the means she ever had occasion to use in the course of her cruise against the commerce of the United States; and that no inconsiderable portion of her hostile career was passed whilst she was still registered as a British vessel, with a British owner, on the official records of the Kingdom. 2. That the commander had been made fully aware of the suppression of the rebellion the very day before he committed a series of outrages on innocent, industrious, and unarmed citizens of the United States in the Sea of Okhotsk. 3. The list of the crew herewith submitted, with all the particulars attending the sources from which the persons were drawn, is believed to be so far substantially correct as to set at rest the pretence of the officer sent on board that there were no British subjects belonging to the vessel. Deeming it to be of the utmost importance to the establishment of the precise relations of neutral Powers towards belligerents in future emergencies, that all the facts attending the share taken by Her Britannic Majesty's subjects in the late war should be clearly placed before the world, I have ventured to take the liberty to ask of your Lordship the privilege to consider these papers as intended to modify, so far as they may be fairly entitled to be regarded as doing so, the allegations of fact which appear in the notes to which they respectively refer.pray, &c., I (Signed) CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Mr. Adams to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Received January 3.) Legation of the United States, My Lord, It may, perhaps, be recollected by your Lordship that in the note which I had the honour to address to you on November 18, allusion was made to a suggestion made by your predecessor, the Right Honourable Earl Russell, in his note of the 2nd of the same month, which I was then answering, that looked to the possibility of a concurrent revision of the statutes of both nations to the end that greater security might be given to them against those who endeavour to evade the letter of their present Neutrality Laws. Considering this in the nature of a proposition, I took the liberty to mention to you that I should with pleasure transmit it for the consideration of my Government. I have now the honour to inform your Lordship that the views of that subject expressed in my note have met with approval. It is, then, with regret, but without surprise, that I find myself directed to add that the United States do not incline towards an acceptance of his Lordship's proposition.-I pray, &c. (Signed) CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, The Earl of Clarendon to Sir F. Bruce. Foreign Office, January 19, 1866, Sir,-In my despatch of the 26th ultimo, I transmitted to you a copy of a despatch addressed to Mr. Adams by |