On the extraordinary proceedings at his trial it is scarcely proper for me, perhaps, to make any remark. I have no knowledge of the chief witnesses, nor of the facts to which they depose, beyond the statement of a Charles Burgthal (a man who does not speak English), that he dined with Mr. Howe at Jones's Hotel in this city, which I know, and Mr. Howe's bill proves, to be false. I regret to have to draw your Lordship's notice to the difference in Judge Kane's opinion on the 22nd of May and the 27th of September. The Earl of Clarendon. GEO. B. MATHEW. (Inclosure.)-Consul Mathew to Mr. Rush. MY DEAR SIR, Her Britannic Majesty's Consulate, 9, Pear Street, Philadelphia, March 29, 1855. I PERCEIVE, with surprise, by this morning's journals that personal allusion to me has been made yesterday during the proceedings before The United States' Commissioner, respecting the alleged violation of the Neutrality Laws. I shall therefore be much obliged to you to attend professionally! on my behalf during the further hearing of the matter, and to state to the Commissioner that the evidence (as reported) of the witness, Wm. Jones, is, as far as I am concerned, however immaterial it may be, incorrect. I am unwilling to suppose that this man came to my office with the discreditable object of involving me in any illegality, but I conclude him to be a person who, after having unsuccessfully, but with peculiar tenacity and with loud assertions of loyal patriotism, urged me to send him to serve at Halifax, stated there was an office in Third-street, where he would at once be "taken" and shipped, and wished me to give him some note there. My negative reply was "If there is such an office, I know nothing about it; it must be some private affair." Many of Her Britannic Majesty's subjects have expressed to me their natural desire to serve their country in a war which may emphatically be said to have emanated from the voice of the people: and a large number of natives of Continental Europe and others have also made known to me their wishes respecting a war which they view as tending to advance the constitutional liberties of man, and I hold myself free to assist, as far as I can with strict legality, my countrymen in their laudable object, just, as I doubt not, every American in Europe would aid a poor fellow-citizen towards his home were The United States at war; but cognizant, as I am, of the Neutrality Laws of The United States, I shall most carefully guard against infringing them. On the other hand I feel well assured of receiving full protection against ungrounded insinuations, and every courtesy. I merely desire to add, with reference to the statement of an evening journal, that there is no British agent or functionary in this State but me. Believe me, &c. -Rush, Esq. GEO. B. MATHEW. No. 42.-Mr. Crampton to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. Oct. 29.) I HAVE the honour to inclose the copy of a despatch which I have received from Mr. Mathew, Her Majesty's Consul at Philadelphia, transmitting to me the report of certain proceedings which have been taken in The United States' District Court at that place, by the District Attorney, in the matter of Hertz, who was lately found guilty of having violated the Neutrality Laws, by enlisting recruits for the British army. Your Lordship will not peruse without surprise the letters which have been read in open Court by the District Attorney, being instructions addressed to him by Mr. Cushing, the Attorney-General of The United States. Your Lordship will perceive that Mr. Cushing has thought proper to direct his comments upon your Lordship's note to Mr. Buchanan of the 16th of July last, to be read in Court, and that he has gone so far as to apply the terms "malefactors screened from justice by your Lordship's ingenious devices," to the Diplomatic and Consular Agents of the British Government in this country. With regard to the pretended confession of Hertz, I trust that it is almost unnecessary for me to assure your Lordship that this man's statements as to the substance of, or words of, his conversations with me, is a tissue of audacious and deliberate falsehoods. I am not less convinced that his assertions in regard to his communications with Mr. Mathew are totally false. The motives of Hertz for these statements are, indeed, too apparent to escape the most casual observer. The whole of his trial has evidently been a mock proceeding, in which the defendant has been in collusion with the plaintiffs, and as the real object of the proceedings against Hertz are now avowed by the District Attorney to be not his conviction, but the implication of Her Majesty's officers in the offence of which he is accused, I leave it to your Lordship to draw your own conclusion in regard to the motives and objects of the Government of The United States in bringing forward this confession. I have the honour to inclose a copy of the answer which I have [1856-57. XLVII.] 2 D returned to Mr. Mathew's despatch, recommending him for the present to refrain from taking legal steps for refuting the calumnies with which he has been assailed. It is evident that from the directions given by Mr. Cushing to the District Attorney in regard to Mr. Mathew, that Mr. Mathew would not be allowed an opportunity of defending himself in a manner sufficiently direct or consistent with his position to be of real avail; and I have, therefore, thought it better that he should reserve his defence for communication through Her Majesty's Government to that of The United States, 'so soon as the latter shall have preferred charges against him through the proper official channels, founded upon the assertions of Hertz, or others to the same effect. I have, &c. The Earl of Clarendon. (Extract.) JOHN F. CRAMPTON. (Inclosure 1.)-Consul Mathew to Mr. Crampton. Philadelphia, October 13, 1855. Ir was with unbounded surprise that I perused in this day's "Pennsylvanian," the report of the proceedings yesterday in The United States' District Court of this city. I desire to submit to your Excellency the impropriety of the language and conclusions respecting me in The United States' Attorney-General's letter of September 17, 1855. The hearing before a United States' Commissioner, in the first place, is wholly different from any proceeding before a court of judicature: it is simply a court of full and fair inquiry. The evidence before it, if impugned, will be weighed with consequent justice. A man, apparently sent to entrap me, had urged upon me, with many protestations, to send him to Halifax, or at least to give him a recommendation to some place in this city where he could be enlisted. On my refusal and statement that I knew of no such place, and that none such could exist with the knowledge and sanction of any British authorities, he left me; but in his evidence before The United States' Commissioner, falsely stated that I had named to him a recruiting office in South Third Street. With regard to the alleged "confession" of Henry Hertz, I can easily judge by the falsehoods he has told of my words and acts, and, to my knowledge, of Mr. Bucknell's, who recently left this country for Ireland, of the probable degree of his veracity respecting your Excellency and Mr. Howe. The first time I saw Mr. Hertz he inquired if I had received s letter for him from your Excellency. At his request I mentioned this to you; and on his return some days after to my office, I made known to him, without further conversation, your Excellency's reply, that you had received no commands from Her Majesty's Government on the subject of his communication. I subsequently, at Mr. Howe's request, made inquiry as to his character, and communicated to that gentleman the unfavourable impression I had received. But I did not see him again until the day after Mr. Howe's departure, when he came to my office, and expressed his surprise Mr. Howe had not left with me some money for him. He urged upon me in vain to advance him funds, and I pointedly refused, to his apparent annoyance, to enter into his arrangements, or to have any knowledge of his business with Mr. Howe. It would appear from his own statement of his object, that he was specially engaged or employed to implicate me in illegal acts; that failing therein he has now recourse to falsehood. At his earnest request I transmitted a sealed letter to Mr. Howe, and handed him a reply, containing, I believe, money, for which he gave a receipt made out to Mr. Howe, and inclosed by me to him. On a second occasion I declined to give him the money, though merely the channel of transfer; and the amount was sent to the proprietor of an hotel, from whose bookkeeper he received it. I persisted in knowing nothing of his affairs, gave him no counsel or advice, and was wholly ignorant of the recruiting or departure of his men. On one occasion he forced himself into my presence without sending up his name, in my bedroom; stated he was going on most important business to see Mr. Howe at New York; and ended by asking me, under many oaths and protestations, to lend him as a private loan 50 dollars, which I did to get rid of him. He has not fulfilled his pledge of repayment. On his arrest he commenced a series of threatening letters, with the view of extorting money, which I placed, with full explanations, in the hands of my legal adviser, Mr. Rush. I further refused, through Mr. Sharwood, the request he had made to see him. After his trial he had the impertinence to enter my office, and I refused to hold any communication with him. He then stated to Mr. Bucknell that "he would still find means to catch me, and to be revenged." By referring to the letters produced at his trial from Messrs. Lumley and Stanley, and now reproduced in his "confession," your Excellency will perceive, that though the latter pretended document is sworn on October 1, all the matter on which it is founded must have been in Mr. Van Dyke's possession previous to the trial. As I am desirous of avoiding unjust imputations in the community in which I reside, I propose, unless I receive by Tuesday the expression of your Excellency's desire to the contrary, to take some step by affidavit or otherwise, to deny the chief allegations falsely made by Henry Hertz. I trust to find that in your Excellency's opinion I have done nothing in these premises incorrect or derogatory to my honour. J. F. Crampton, Esq. GEO. B. MATHEW. SIR, (Inclosure 2.) Attorney-General's Office, September 17, 1855. I DESIRE to make a further suggestion in regard to the trial of parties charged with recruiting soldiers in The United States for the service of the British Government. It is known that instructions on this subject were given by that Government to its officers in The United States. We are told by Lord Clarendon that those officers had "stringent instructions" s to proceed as not to violate the municipal law, that is, to violate its spirit, but not its letter. If so, the instructions themselves violate. the sovereign rights of The United States. But, in the meantime, every Consul of Great Britain in The United States is, by the avowal of his Government, subject to the just suspicion of breach of law; while, apparently, he must either have disobeyed his own Government, or, in obeying it, have abused his Consular functions by the violation of his international duty to The United States. In these circumstances, it is deemed highly necessary that the British Consul at Philadelphia, or any other officer of the British Government, shall not be suffered to interfere in the trials, as he attempted to do on a previous occasion; that no letter of his be read, except in the due form of evidence; and that if he have any thing to say, he shall be put on the stand by the defence in order that he may be fully cross-examined by the prosecution. It is clear that he has no right, by any rule of public law, or of international comity, to be heard in the case by the Court otherwise than as a witness, whether enforced or volunteer. J. C. Van Dyke, Esq. I have, &c. C. CUSHING. (Inclosure 3.)-Report of Trial. UNITED STATES v. HENRY HERTZ. The Confession is as follows: In the District Court of The United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. United States, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ss. Be it remembered, that on this 11th day of October, A.D., 1855, before me, Charles F. Heazlitt, a Commissioner of The United States, personally came Henry Hertz, who being duly sworn, says: |