further directed to express to you the President's concern at the failure thus far of the efforts that have been made to avert a misunderstanding between the two countries upon a point which the American people have come to regard as seriously affecting their national honour and dignity. Praying, &c. (Signed) CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. Foreign Office, November 29, 1864. Sir,-In acknowledging your letter of the 10th instant, I have no wish to prolong the controversy between us on the topic of the Deerhound,' and the rescue of Captain Semmes and other persons from drowning. On the general subject I refer you to the despatch which I have addressed to Lord Lyons, and of which I have had the honour to send you a copy in my note of this day.* There are, however, two points to which I wish to call your attention. The first is, that you have omitted to notice the gist of my answer to your complaint. The question is not so much whether the act of the Commander of the Deerhound' in interposing to save from drowning Captain Semmes and other officers and men of the Alabama was 'a praiseworthy act of humanity,' and whether any proposal to restore them to the hands of the victors in the struggle after they had reached the limits of this kingdom could be viewed only as a violation of the duties of hospitality,'-these considerations, I say, are not so much at issue as the question, what is the legal obligation with regard to these matters of Her Majesty's Government towards the United States? On this question I affirmed: 1. That the municipal law of this kingdom gave the Government no power or authority to deliver up to the United States Captain Semmes, his officers and men. 2. That the law of nations does not impose upon the Government of the United Kingdom the duty of delivering up to the United States persons in the condition of Captain • See Papers presented to Parliament, North America' (No. 1), 1865, p. 25. 6 Semmes, and such of his officers and men as had taken refuge in this kingdom. The next point regards the differences between the United States and Spain to which I referred. I do not wish to go fully into it now, although I may hereafter do so in correspondence with the Government of the United States. I will only point out at present the nature of the complaint made by the Spanish Minister in 1818, and the tenor of the principal Article of Treaty by which the differences between Spain and the United States were adjusted. Señor de Onis, the Spanish Minister at Washington, wrote, on November 16, 1818, to the United States Minister to the following effect: 'Whatever may be the forecast, wisdom, and justice conspicuous in the laws of the United States, it is universally notorious that a system of pillage and aggression has been organized in several ports of the Union against the vessels and property of the Spanish nation,' &c. After a long negociation the complaints of Spain were satisfied by a Treaty signed on February 22, 1819. Article IX. of that Treaty states that 'the High Contracting Parties, animated with the most earnest desire of conciliation, and with the object of putting an end to all the differences which have existed between them, and of confirming the good understanding which they wish to be for ever maintained between them, reciprocally renounce all claim for damages or injuries which they themselves, as well as their respective citizens and subjects, may have suffered until the time of signing this Treaty.' Whether such a Treaty would furnish any elements for negociation between our two Governments I am not prepared to affirm. But it can scarcely be said that this Treaty arrangement for the mutual abandonment of claims constituted a specific grant of compensation to Spain by the United States for injuries complained of by Spain. I am, &c. Mr. Adams to Earl Russell.-(Received December 2.) Legation of the United States, My Lord, I have had the honour to receive your note of November 29, in reply to mine of the 10th of that month on the subject of the 'Deerhound.' The reason why I omitted to enter into the discussion of the main points of your Lordship's note of September 26, was that I had been directed by my Government to present the conclusion to which it had come from a full examination of them, which appeared to render further argument on my part superfluous; otherwise it would have given me great pleasure to examine the questions:-1st. How far the absence of statute law depending on volition can be urged in extenuation of the omission to fulfil the acknowledged obligations of international law; and 2nd. How far the acknowledgment of the right of asylum by a neutral power is admitted by international law, to tolerate the harbouring of enemies, abusing that right for the purpose of more effectually injuring the people of a friendly nation. But I forbear, because I have no authority to prolong the controversy, and I join with your Lordship in adding that I have no such desire. With regard to your Lordship's notice of my reference to the Treaty of the United States with Spain as not sustaining the allegation contained in my notes, which foreclosed all possibility of drawing the parallel between the action of the two nations which was attempted in your note of September 26, I may only be permitted to repeat my surprise that the passage referred to should even yet have so completely escaped your Lordship's attention. Had you passed from the IXth Article, which you quote, to the Xth, which recapitulates the claims released and surrendered on each side, you would have found on the part of Spain an express renunciation of four classes of claims, the two last of which are in the following words: เ 3. To all injuries caused by the expedition of Miranda, that was fitted out and equipped at New York.' '4. To all claims of Spanish subjects upon the Government of the United States, arising from unlawful seizures at sea, or within the ports of territorial jurisdiction of the United States.' I pray, &c. (Signed) CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Mr. Adams to Earl Russell.-(Received April 8.) Legation of the United States, London, My Lord, I have the honour to transmit to you a copy of a letter addressed to the Secretary of State at Washington by the Consul of the United States at Rio Janeiro, Mr. Monroe, making a report of the depredations committed upon the commerce of the United States by the vessel known in the port of London as the 'Sea King,' but since transformed into the 'Shenandoah' by a process already fully explained in a note which I had the honour to address to your Lordship on November 18 last. I regret to be obliged to add that this same vessel has been, since the date of Mr. Monroe's letter, heard of at Melbourne, from which place further details of similar outrages have been received. The particulars have been communicated to my Government, but there has not yet been sufficient time for me to obtain its instructions in regard to them. I cannot doubt, however, that they will be the same in substance as those embraced in the last despatch. Were there any reasons to believe that the operations carried on in the ports of Her Majesty's kingdom and its dependencies to maintain and extend this systematic depredation upon the commerce of a friendly people had been materially relaxed or prevented, I should not be under the painful necessity of announcing to your Lordship the fact that my Government cannot avoid entailing upon the Government of Great Britain the responsibility for this damage. It is impossible to be insensible to the injury that may yet be impending from the part which the British steamer City of Richmond' has had in being suffered to transport with impunity from the port of London men and supplies, to place them on board of the French-built steam-ram Olinthe,' alias 'Stoerkodder,' alias 'Stonewall,' which has, through a continuously fraudu lent process, succeeded in deluding several Governments of Europe, and in escaping from this hemisphere on its errand of mischief in the other. เ I am by no means insensible to the efforts which have already been made, and are yet making, by Her Majesty's * This, and the other inclosures in Mr. Adams' letter, are included in the correspondence respecting the Shenandoah,' presented to Parliament. Government to put a stop to such outrages in this kingdom and its dependencies. Neither can I permit myself to doubt the favourable disposition of her Ministers to maintain amicable relations with the Government which I represent. Whilst perfectly ready to bear testimony to the promptness with which all the numerous remonstrances and representations which it has been my painful duty heretofore to submit have been met and attended to by your Lordship, it is, at the same time, impossible for me to dispute the fact that the hostile policy which it is the object of all this labour to prevent has not only not been checked, but is even now going into execution with more and more complete success. That policy, I trust I need not point out to your Lordship, is substantially the destruction of the whole mercantile navigation belonging to the people of the United States. The nature of the process by which this is coming about may readily be appreciated by a brief examination of the returns of the registered tonnage of Her Majesty's kingdom for the last six years. I have the honour to append to this note a tabular statement of the number of merchant-ships built, and of the tonnage owned in the United States, which have been transferred to British owners in the successive years beginning with 1858 and ending in 1864, so far as the materials at hand, from the official reports of the two Governments, can supply the information. I trust that it will be needless for me to do more than to point out to your Lordship the inference deducible from this statement, to wit:-That the United States commerce is rapidly vanishing from the face of the ocean, and that that of Great Britain is multiplying in nearly the same ratio. Furthermore, it is my painful duty to suggest that this process is going on by reason of the action of British subjects, in co-operation with emissaries of the insurgents, who have supplied from the ports of Her Majesty's kingdom all the materials, such as vessels, armament, supplies, and men, indispensable to the effective prosecution of this result on the ocean. So far as I am aware, not a single vessel has been engaged in these depredations excepting such as have been so furnished. Unless, indeed, I might except one or two passenger steamers belonging to persons in New York, forcibly taken possession of whilst at |