subject. In the view which I have taken of this extraordinary proceeding as a violation of the Enlistment Act, I am happy to find myself sustained by the opinion of an eminent lawyer of Great Britain, a copy of which I do myself the honour likewise to transmit. ¶ Renewing, &c.

No. 654. Vereinigte Staaten,

24. Juli

1862.

Charles Francis Adams.

Anlage.

Case submitted to Mr. Collier, Q. C.

You will receive here with copies of the following affidavits in reference to a gunboat known as „No. 290," which was built by Messrs. Laird and Co. at Birkenhead, as it is believed for the Confederate States of America, and which is now lying ready for sea in all respects in the Birkenhead docks: . No. 1. Affirmation of T. H. Dudley; No. 2. Affidavit of J. de Costa; No. 3. Affidavit of Mr. Maguire; No. 4. Affidavit of H. Wilding and M. Maguire; No. 5. Affidavit of A. S. Clare; No. 6. Affidavit of William Passmore; No. 7. Affidavit of Edward Roberts; No. 8. Affidavit of Robert John Taylor. An application has been made on the Affidavits Nos. 1 to 6 inclusive, to the Collector of Customs at Liverpool, to detain the vessel under the provisions of the Act 59 Geo. III, cap. 69; but, under the advice of the Solicitors to the Customs, the Board have declined to sanction the detention of the vessel. ¶ You are requested to advise the Consul for the United States at Liverpool whether the affidavits now submitted to you disclose facts which would justify the Collector of Customs in detaining the vessel under the Act in question.

July 23, 1862.

Opinion.

I have perused the above affidavits, and I am of opinion that the Collector of Customs would be justified in detaining the vessel. Indeed, I should think it his duty to detain her; and that if, after the application which has been made to him, supported by the evidence which has been laid before me, he allows the vessel to leave Liverpool, he will incur a heavy responsibility, a responsibility of which the Board of Customs, under whose directions he appears to be acting, must take their share. It appears difficult to make out a stronger case of infringement of the Foreign Enlistment Act, which, if not enforced on this occasion, is little better than a dead letter. ¶ It well deserves consideration whether, if the vessel be allowed to escape, the Federal Government would not have serious grounds of remonstrance.

Temple, July 23, 1862.

Staatsarchiv IV. 1863.

R. P. Collier.

20

20

GROSSBRITANNIEN.

No. 655.

Min. d. Ausw. an d. Gesandt. d. Vereinigten Staatenin Das Verfahren der englischen Regierung in Bezug auf den

,,Alabama" betr.

Foreign Office, September 22, 1862.

No. 655.
Gross-

Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of britannien, the 4th instant inclosing a copy of a letter from the United States' Consul at 22. Sept. 1862. Liverpool, together with the deposition of Henry Redden respecting the supply of cannon and munitions of war to the gun-boat,,No. 290." You also call attention to the fact that you have not yet received any reply to the representations you have addressed to Her Majesty's Government upon the subject. ¶ I had the honour in acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 23rd of June to state to you that the matter had been referred to the proper Department of Her Majesty's Government for investigation. Your subsequent letters were also at once forwarded to that Department, but, as you were informed in my letter of the 28th of July, it was requisite before any active steps could be taken in the matter to consult the Law Officers of the Crown. This could not be done until sufficient evidence had been collected, and from the nature of the case some time was necessarily spent in procuring it. The Report of the Law Officers was not received until the 29th of July, and on the same day a telegraphic message was forwarded to Her Majesty's Government, stating that the vessel had sailed that morning. Instructions were then despatched to Ireland to detain the vessel should she put into Queenstown, and similar instructions have been sent to the Governor of the Bahamas in case of her visiting Nassau. It appears, however, that the vessel did not go to Queenstown as had been expected, and nothing has been since heard of her movements. The officers of Customs will now be directed to report upon the further evidence forwarded by you, and I shall not fail to inform you of the result of the inquiry. ¶ I am, &c.

To Mr. Adams, etc.

Russell.

No. 656.

No. 656.

VEREINIGTE STAATEN von AMERIKA.
britannischen Min. d. Ausw.

- Gesandter in London an d. kön. grossDie Ausrüstung von Schiffen der Conföderirten Staaten in englischen Häfen betr.

My Lord,

Legation of the United States, London, September 30 (received October 1), 1862. I have the honour to submit to your consideration the Vereinigte Staaten, copy of another deposition, taken at Liverpool before the Collector of the port, 30. Sept. 1862. which, in connection with the papers heretofore presented, go to establish beyond

reasonable doubt the fact that the insurgents in the United States and their coadjutors at that place have been engaged in fitting out vessels at that port to make war on the United States, in utter contempt of the law and of Her Majesty's

Vereinigte 30. Sept.

1862.

injunctions in her Proclamation. I expect to be in possession of some stronger No. 656. evidence of the same nature in relation to past transactions, which I hope to be Staaten, able likewise to submit in a few days. The injuries to which the people of the United States are subjected by the unfortunate delays experienced in the case of my remonstrance against the fitting out of the gun-boat,,290," now called the Confederate steamer,,Alabama," are just beginning to be reported. I last night received intelligence from Gibraltar that this vessel has destroyed ten whalingships in the course of a short time at the Azores. I have strong reason to believe that still other enterprises of the same kind are in progress in the ports of Great Britain at this time: indeed, they have attained so much notoriety as to be openly announced in the newspapers of Liverpool and London. In view of the very strong legal opinion which I had the honour to present to your Lordship's consideration, it is impossible that all these things should not excite great attention in the United States. I very much fear they will impress the people and the Government with a belief, however unfounded, that their just claims on the neutrality of Great Britain have not been sufficiently estimated. The extent to which Her Majesty's flag, and some of her ports, have been used to the end of carrying on hostile operations, is so universally understood that I deem it unnecessary further to dwell upon it. But in the spirit of friendliness with which I have ever been animated towards Her Majesty's Government, I feel it my duty to omit no opportunity of urging the manifestation of its well-known energy in upholding those laws of neutrality upon which alone the reciprocal confidence of nations can find a permanent base. ¶ I pray, &c.

To Earl Russell, etc.

Charles Francis Adams.

No. 657.

VEREINIGTE STAATEN von AMERIKA.

Min. d. Ausw.

Gesandt. in London a. d. kön. gross brit. Entschädigungsforderung für die Schäden, welche der ,,Alabama" der Regierung und den Unterthanen der Union zugefügt

Legation of the United States, London, November 20 (received November 22), 1862.

Staaten, 20. Nov. 1862.

My Lord, It is with very great regret that I find myself once more No. 657. under the necessity of calling your Lordship's attention to the painful situation Vereinigte in which the Government of the United States is placed by the successive reports received of the depredations committed on the high seas upon merchant-vessels by the gun-boat known in this country as ,,No. 290," touching the construction and outfit of which in the port of Liverpool, for the above purpose, I had the honour of heretofore presenting evidence of the most positive character. It ག is my duty now to submit to your consideration copies of a large number of papers received from Washington, as well as from the Consul at Liverpool, of which concur in establishing the truth of the allegations made by me of the intentions of that vessel prior to her departure from the ports of this kingdom.

all

No. 657. Vereinigte Staaten,

20. Nov.

1862.

I then averred that the purpose was to make war upon the people of the United

States, a nation with which Great Britain has now been for half a century, and
still is, on a footing of the most friendly alliance by the force of Treaties which
have received the solemn sanction of all the authorities regarded among men
That I made no
as necessary to guarantee the mutual obligations of nations.
mistake in that averment is now fully proved by the hostile proceedings of that
vessel since the day she sailed from the place in this kingdom where she was
prepared for that end. It now appears from a survey of all the evidence,
first, that this vessel was built in a dockyard belonging to a commercial house
in Liverpool, of which the chief member, down to October of last year, was a
member of the House of Commons; secondly, that from the manner of her con-
struction, and her peculiar adaptation to war purposes, there could have been
no doubt by those engaged in the work, and familiar with such details, that she
was intended for other purposes than those of legitimate trade; and, thirdly,
that during the whole process and outfit in Liverpool, the direction of the
details, and the engagement of persons to be employed in her, were more or
less in hands known to be connected with the insurgents in the United States.
It further appears that since her departure from Liverpool, which she was suffered
to leave without any of the cust omary evidence at the Custom-house to designate
her ownership, she has been supplied with her armament, with coals, and stores,
and men, by vessels known to be fitted out and despatched for the purpose from
the same port; and that although commanded by Americans in her navigation
of the ocean, she is manned almost entirely by English seamen, engaged and
forwarded from that port by persons in league with her Commander. Further-
more, it is shown that this Commander, claiming to be an officer acting under
legitimate authority, yet is in the constant practice of raising the flag of Great
Britain, in order the better to execute his system of ravage and depredation on
the high seas. And lastly, it is made clear that he pays no regard whatever to
the recognized law of capture of merchant-vessels on the high seas, which requires
the action of some judicial tribunal to confirm the rightfulness of the proceeding;
but, on the contrary, that he resorts to the piratical system of taking, plundering,
and burning private property without regard to consequences or responsibility
to any legitimate authority whatever. Such being the admitted state of the
facts, the case evidently opens a series of novel questions of the gravest charac-
ter to the consideration of all civilized countries. It is obviously impossible to
reconcile the toleration by any one nation of similar undertakings in its own
ports to the injury of another nation with which it is at peace, with any known
theory of moral or political obligation. It is equally clear that the reciprocation
of such practices could only lead, in the end, to the utter subversion of all
security to private property upon the ocean. In the case of countries geographi-
cally approximated to one another, the preservation of peace between them for
any length of time would be rendered by it almost impossible. It would be,
in short, permitting any or all irresponsible parties to prepare and fit out, in
any country, just what armed enterprises against the property of their neighbours
they might think fit to devise, without the possibility of recovering a control

20. Nov.

1862.

over their acts the moment after they might succeed in escaping from the parti- No. 657. Vereinigte cular local jurisdiction into the high seas. ¶ It is by no means my desire to Staaten, imply an intention on the part of Her Majesty's Government to countenance any such idea. I am fully aware of the fact that, at a very early date, more than one month before the escape of the vessel, on my presenting evidence of the nature and purposes of the nameless vessel, together with the decided opinion of eminent Counsel that a gross violation of the law of the land, as well as a breach of the law of nations, was in process of perpetration, an investigation was entered into by the Law Officers of the Crown, which resulted in an acknowledgment of the justice of the remonstrance. In consequence of this I am led to infer, from the language of your Lordship's note of the 22nd of September explaining the facts of the case, that an order to detain the vessel at Liverpool was about to issue on the 29th of July last, when a telegraphic message was forwarded to you from that port to the effect that the vessel had escaped that very morning. Your Lordship further adds that instructions were then immediately sent to Ireland to stop her should she put into Queenstown, and similar instructions were forwarded to the port of Nassau. But it has turned out that nothing has been heard of her at either place. It thus appears that Her Majesty's Government had become so far convinced of the true nature of the enterprize in agitation at Liverpool from the evidence which I had had the honour to submit to your Lordship's consideration, and from other inquiry, as to have determined on detaining the vessel. So far as this action went, it seems to have admitted the existence of a case of violation of the laws of neutrality in one of Her Majesty's ports of which the Government of the United States had a right to complain. The question will then remain, how far the failure of the proceedings thus admitted to have been instituted by Her Majesty's Government to prevent the departure of this vessel affects the right of reclamation of the Government of the United States for the grievous damage done to the property of their citizens in permitting the escape of this lawless pirate from its jurisdiction. ¶ And here it may not be without its use to call to your Lordship's recollection for a moment the fact that this question, like almost all others connected with the duty of neutrals in time of war on the high seas, has been much agitated in the discussions heretofore held between the authorities of the two countries. During the latter part of the last century it fell to the lot of Her Majesty's Government to make the strongest remonstrances against the fitting out in the ports of the United States of vessels with an intent to prey upon British commerce; not, however, in the barbarous and illegal manner shown to have been practised by,,No. 290," but subject to the forms of ultimate adjudication equally recognized by all civilized nations: and they went the further length of urging the acknowledgment of the principle of compensation in damages for the consequences of not preventing the departure of such vessels. That principle was formally recognized as valid by both parties, in the VIIth Article of the Treaty of the 19th November, 1794; and accordingly, all cases of damage previously done by capture of British vessels or merchandize, by vessels originally fitted out in the ports of the United States, were therein agreed to be referred to