[Inclosure 23 in No. 6.]

Mr. J. Laird to Mr. Howard.

BIRKENHEAD IRON-WORKS,
Birkenhead, September 21, 1861.

MY DEAR SIR: We have very conflicting accounts from America of your proceedings, except as to the Navy, and in that Department you appear to be making good progress. We have contracted for an iron-plated ship of about 7,000 tons for the admiralty, in addition to a troop-ship of 3,000 tons, and have also in hand several other ves

sels, which will quite prevent us doing anything quickly for some time to come. [214] *The repairs of the Galway boats are quite equal to building two good-sized

vessels, and we are full in the engineering department, and compelled to work night and day with our tools. This we propose to remedy by adding to our tools and works, but this will take some months. The admiralty are going to order three more iron-plated ships in a few months, so they will have a fleet in the end.

I hope all your sons and nephews have escaped hitherto in the war. Pity North and South could not come together again, but that appears not likely to be accomplished without much bloodshed and bad feeling.

You will have all the news as to Great Eastern; this is a disastrous wind up for her, I fear, and it will be long before she gets a reputation again. With compliments to all your family, believe me, &c.,

(Signed)

I inclose memorandum, result of our first surface-condensers.

JOHN LAIRD.

[Inclosure 24 in No. 6.]

Messrs. Laird, Sons & Co. to Mr. Howard.

BIRKENHEAD IRON-WORKS, October 9, 1861.

DEAR SIR: We wrote you on the 21st September, and have since received your letter of 20th September.

We regret that with our present engagements with the English admiralty for an iron-cased frigate (6,700 tons) and a large screw transport vessel, we cannot at present undertake to execute quickly an order for other vessels of this class, and we therefore decided not to tender to your Government for the vessels they require.

We are now making extensive alterations in one of our graving docks, in which we intend to build this large class of vessels, and propose shedding it over, and erecting traveling-cranes and powerful machinery of various kinds for carrying on the work with greater rapidity and we consider that building in a dock (thus saving the risk of launching) and under a shed are both very great advantages.

:

As regard the gun-boats, we will be quite prepared to execute orders for one or two of these, if our tender is accepted, as the larger class of work above referred to will not interfere with this.

(Signed)

JOHN LAIRD, SONS & CO.

[Inclosure 25 in No. 6.]

Mr. Howard to Messrs. Laird, Sons & Co., Birkenhead.

NEW YORK, October 25, 1861.

MY DEAR SIRS: I have your valued favors, also the slips containing very interesting accounts of your new works, all of which give me much pleasure.

I congratulate you on the confidence manifested by your government in intrusting you with the building of an iron-plated ship of such large dimensions, as well as the transport-ship, and I have no doubt but that you will turn them out, as you always have done, to the entire satisfaction of the admiralty. I trust that you may get the contract for the others they propose.

I cannot but regret that you did not estimate for the floating batteries required by our Navy Department, as it would have been a step in the right direction, and had you succeeded, as I know you would, it would have gone far toward relaxing the stringency of our navigation laws in reference to the buying of foreign-built ships.

I sent your last letter, received yesterday, to the Secretary of the Navy, who was very desirous to have you build the iron-plated or bomb-proof batteries, and I trust that he may yet decide to have you build one or more of the gun-boats.

It is my present intention to visit England again for a hurried trip, leaving here on

the Africa, on the 6th November, and if so, I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you about the 18th proximo.

With kind regards to all, I am, &c., (Signed)

[215]

*[Inclosure 26 in No. 6.]

Mr. J. Laird to Mr. Howard.

JNO. T. HOWARD.

BIRKENHEAD, April 11, 1863.

MY DEAR SIR: You will have seen by the newspapers the report of the discussion in the House of Commons on the Alabama case, on the 27th March last, and that I named in part of my speech the fact that my late firm had had application from the Secretary of the Navy of the Federal Government, through a friend of mine, to build vessels of war for them.

I do not wish to bring your name before the public, or to publish the correspondence, except in the event of the Federal Government denying the statement I made, in which case I shall have, in self-defense, to do so, which I shall regret.

I think if they do deny the negotiation, it will be treating you unfairly, more especially as your letter to me, and its inclosures, handed to you by them, show that they entered very fully with you into the class of vessels required, and the object these vessels were intended to accomplish.

The American Government, as you also informed me personally, and by letter May, 1661, had employed Captain Comstock to endeavor to purchase suitable vessels for blockading purposes, and that you were in communication with him on this subject. I did not name the negotiation I had with the Federal Government through you, until forced to do so by their friends in the House of Commons, notwithstanding the repeated attacks made on myself and my sons in the American and English press, and by the partisans of the North, at public meetings and elsewhere.

To have remained longer silent would have been construed into an admission that the charges made against me were correct, and therefore I felt the time had arrived when I must make some statement on the subject.

I hope your family are all well, and remain, &c., (Signed)

JOHN LAIRD.

MY DEAR SIR: I inclose duplicate of a letter I wrote you last week from Birkenhead, as it is important that I should have a reply from you as early as possible.

I am, &c.,

(Signed)

JNO. T. HOWARD.

(The duplicate of letter referred to was the one dated the 11th April, 1863.)

[Inclosure 28 in No. 6.]

Mr. J. Laird to Mr. Howard.

10 PARK PLACE, ST. JAMES'S, London, July 28, 1863.

MY DEAR SIR: You will have seen in the London papers Mr. Cobden's speech on Thursday last, as to the foreign-enlistment act.

I inclose you copy of a letter from Mr. Gideon Welles, which Mr. Cobden has chosen to publish, and which necessitated a reply from me, copy of which I inclose.

I regret very much that the conduct of the Federal Secretary of the Navy, in disavowing the negotiations he had with you, compelled me to make public the correspondence, but, on the advice of some very influential friends of mine in the House of Commons, I have not published your name.

For not doing so I am much found fault with by some of the newspapers here, who advocate the cause of the North.

I think it right to send you the inclosed, and regret you did not reply to my letter of 11th April.

I am, &c.,
(Signed)

JOHN LAIRD.

[216]

*[Inclosure 29 in No. 6.]

M. J. Laird to Mr. Howard.

BIRKENHEAD, July 31, 1863.

DEAR SIR: I annex copy of a letter I wrote you on Tuesday and posted by Wednes day's steamer, and shall be glad to hear from you, with any communication you may have to make in case I may have to say anything on the subject again.

I am now at home, and shall most likely be here until January, except an occa

sional absence.

Yours, &c.,
(Signed)

JOHN LAIRD.

[Inclosure 30 in No. 6.]

Mr. J. Laird to Mr. Howard.

BIRKENHEAD, August 4, 1863.

DEAR SIR: I wrote you on the 28th instant, and also on the 31st instant, and hope you may have received the letters in due course, but, in case you have not, I write again and inclose copy of my letters, and also leading articles from Morning Star and Daily News, both showing a desire that your name should be made public.

I also inclose you an extract from the Liverpool Daily Post, suggesting Admiral Porter as being the party making inquiries.

I shall be glad to hear you have duly received my various letters, as you always did so with regularity formerly.

Yours, &c.,
(Signed)

JOHN LAIRD.

[Inclosure 31 in No. 6.]

Mr. Howard to Mr. J. Laird.

NEW YORK, August 11, 1863.

MY DEAR SIR: I have your letters of 28th and 31st ultimo. Yours of 11th April was received during my absence in California, and did not reach me until just as I was about returning hither, arriving only a few days since.

It was with regret that I noticed you had used my confidential communications for any purpose whatever.

I do assure you, however, that I am able to justify myself before the world, but reserve to myself the time and manner of doing so.

I am, &c.,
(Signed)

[Inclosure 32 in No. 6.]

Mr. Howard to Mr. Laird.

JNO. T. HOWARD.

NEW YORK, August 25, 1863.

DEAR SIR: I have to acknowledge receipt of your favor of 4th August, together with the cuttings of leading articles from Morning Star and Daily News, all of which have my careful attention.

I am, &c.,
(Signed)

JNO. T. HOWARD.

(217)

*Inclosure 33 in No. 6.]

[218]

*[Inclosure 34 in No. 6.]

Mr. J. Laird to the editor of the Times.

10 PARK PLACE, ST. JAMES'S, London, July 25, 1863.

SIR: The newspapers have published a letter Mr. Cobden was, on a point of form, prevented from reading to the House of Commons on Thursday. It is addressed by Mr. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the United States Navy, to the Hon. Charles Sumner, and dated 19th April, 1863. In this letter Mr. Gideon Welles says that "he has an indistinct remembrance that his Department was importuned by more than one person on behalf of Messrs. Laird." As the matter has never left the memory of Mr. Welles, I shall feel obliged if he will give me the names of any one of the persons who have so importuned him on my behalf; and I shall, no doubt, be able to show him that they did so (if at all) without any authority from me or my firm.

In the mean time I accept the admission that the Department over which Mr. Gideon Welles presides allowed itself to be importuned by foreigners to build ships on behalf of the Federal Government.

Mr. Welles also states that it "is not true that his Department ever approached my firm with a view of getting vessels built in this country for the American Government." I can only say that I believed it to be true; and I leave the public to judge whether I had not sufficient grounds for entertaining this belief, having in my possession the letters, copies of which I forward to you for insertion. The contents of these letters clearly show that my friend was well known to, and in the confidence of, the Federal Naval Department, and I have no doubt his name is very familiar to Mr. Gideon Welles. I also inclose copy of a letter to my correspondent on the 11th April last, to which I have not yet any reply. Before deciding to publish the letter of the 30th July, marked "confidential," and the important memorandum it contained, I consulted some of the leading men on both sides of the House of Commons, and gave them, in confidence, the original correspondence to read.

They are of opinion that the course taken by Mr. Cobden, in publishing Mr. Gideon Welles's letter, gives me a clear right to use all the documents in my possession for my own vindication, but that I am not justified in making public the name of my correspondent. I will only add, in conclusion, that I believed at the time, and believe now, that my correspondent had the authority of his Government for writing the letters, copies of which I inclose.

Requesting the favor of your inserting this correspondence, (Signed)

JOHN LAIRD.

Memorandum.

Attached to the above letter were the following documents:

Copy of letter from J. T. Howard to J. Laird, Sons & Co., dated 30th July, 1861, with copy of memorandum from Navy Department inclosed.

Copy of letter from J. T. Howard to J. Laird, Sons & Co., dated 20th September, 1861.

Copy of letter from J. T. Howard to J. Laird, Sons & Co., dated 25th October, 1861. Copy of letter from John Laird to J. T. Howard, dated 11th April, 1863.

N. B.-These documents are all included in the copies of correspondence sent herewith.

No. 7.

Mr. J. Laird, M. P., to the assistant under-secretary of state for foreign

affairs.

BIRKENHEAD, April 1, 1872. (Received April 2.) MY LORD: In reply to your lordship's letter of 26th March, stating that you are directed by Lord Granville to inquire whether I have any objection to my letter of 12th December last and inclosures being made