FOREIGN OFFICE, September 22, 1862. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 4th instant inclosing a copy of a letter from the United States consul at 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 honor in acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 23d of June to state to you that the matter had been referred to the [12] 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 dispatched 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., No. 10. RUSSELL. Mr. Adams to Earl Russell. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, September 30, 1862. (Received October 1.) MY LORD: I have the honor to submit to your consideration the copy of another deposition, taken at Liverpool before the collector of the port, 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 injunctions in her proclamation. I expect to be in possession of some stronger evidence of the same nature in relation to past transactions, which I hope to be 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 whaling-ships 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 honor 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 toward 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., CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. [Inclosure in No. 10.] George King, of 91 Clarence street, Edge Hill, Liverpool, states that about the 12th August last he was engaged by Mr. Barnett, of Liverpool, to go on a secret expedition at £4 10s. a month. Was not told where he was going to, but understood he was going to the screw-steamer 290 to run the blockade. Was ordered to be at the landing-stage at 12 the next night, to go in a steamer. Asked where they were going to, and was told they were going to have some fun; that was all he was told. Went to the stage on [13] *the next night as ordered, and about midnight went off in a tug-boat to screw steamer Bahama, lying off the Rock. Sailed about 6 the next morning. When we got to Terceira we found the 290] there with a bark alongside. Don't know the bark's name, but saw "Bristol" on her stern. As soon as we got there Captain Semmes told us the 290 was a confederate gun-boat, and was going on a three years' cruise; that every vessel she took or destroyed would be valued, and one-half go to the confederate government and the other half to the crew of the gun-boat. Only about fifteen or sixteen signed then. Captain Bullock was present when this was done. This was on board the Bahama. Subsequently other men signed. I and about eight others refused to go when we found what the 290 was going for. The first night, in the dark, the three cases were discharged from the Bahama into the gun-boat. She had no guns fitted then. The Bristol bark was lashed alongside, and I saw them take guns, shot, and shell out of her into the gun-boat. Saw one of the boxes taken out of the Bahama opened, and it contained the machinery for the swivel-guns. Isaw the machinery fitted for the swivel-guns on the gun-boat. I saw the guns taken from the bark fitted on the gun-boat. I did not see the other boxes from the Bahama opened, H. Ex. 282, vol. iii————27 but know they contained guns, and saw them fitted on board the 290. Saw Captain Bullock superintending the fitting and arming of the gun-boat 290. Captain Butcher was also there, and managed the vessel while she was being armed. She kept sailing about during the day with the bark alongside, and at night anchored in some of the bays. They worked day and most of the night. The three vessels flew the British flag all the time the 290 was arming, and until the Sunday we left her outside Terceira Bay. About 1 o'clock on that day, I think about 24th of August, the 290 fired a gun, hauled down the British flag, and hoisted the confederate flag at the peak, the Saint George's Cross at the fore, and a pennant at the main. She was then just outside the bay, steering to sea. Captain Bullock and Captain Butcher were still on board of her. We kept company with her until about 12 that night, when Captains Bullock and Butcher left her and came on board the Bahama, and came back with us to Liverpool. When I was engaged by Mr. Barnett he gave me a note payable six days after the Bahama sailed, at an office in Water street. My brother received the money for the note. I never signed any articles or agreement of any kind. (Signed) GEORGE KING. Signed and declared before me, at the custom-house, Liverpool, this 27th day of September, 1862. (Signed) J. PRICE EDWARDS, Collector. No. 11. Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. FOREIGN OFFICE, October 4, 1862. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 30th ultimo, inclosing a copy of another deposition taken before the collector of the port of Liverpool, with reference to the proceedings of the gun-boat 290, and further expressing a belief that enterprises of a similar kind are in course of progress in the ports of the United Kingdom; and I have to state to you that, much as Her Majesty's Government desire to prevent such occurrences, they are unable to go beyond the law, municipal and international. I am, &c., RUSSELL. No. 12. Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. FOREIGN OFFICE, October 9, 1862. SIR: With reference to my letter to you of the 22d ultimo, I honor to inclose a copy of a letter which I have received from the board of treasury forwarding a copy of a report from Her Majesty's commissioners of customs relative to the supply of cannon and munitions of war to the gun-boat No. 290. I am, &c., RUSSELL. [Inclosure in No. 12.1 The commissioners of customs to the lords commissioners of the treasury. CUSTOM-HOUSE, September 25, 1862. Your lordships having, by Mr. Arbuthnot's letter of the 16th instant, transmitted to us, with reference to Mr. Hamilton's letter of the 2d ultimo, the inclosed communica tion from the foreign office, with copies of a further letter and its inclosures from the United States minister at this court respecting the supply of cannon and munitions of war to the gun-boat No. 290, recently built at Liverpool, and now in the service of the so-called Confederate States of America, and your lordships having desired that we would take such steps as might seem to be required in view of the facts therein represented, and report the result to your lordships: We have now to report That assuming the statements set forth in the affidavit of Redden, (who sailed from Liverpool in the vessel,) which accompanied Mr. Adams's letter to Earl Russell, to be correct, the furnishing of arms, &c., to the gun-boat does not appear to have taken place in any part of the United Kingdom, or of Her Majesty's dominions, but in or near to Angra Bay, in the Azores, part of the Portuguese dominions. No offense, therefore, cognizable by the laws of this country appears to have been committed by the parties engaged in the transactions alluded to in the affidavit. With respect to the allegation of Redden that the arms, &c., were shipped on board the 290 in Angra Bay, partly from a bark (name not given) which arrived there from London, commanded by a Captain Quinn, and partly from the steamer Bahama, from Liverpool, we beg to. state that no vessel having a master named Quinn can be traced as having sailed from this port for foreign parts during the last six months. The Knight Errant, Captain Quine, a vessel of 1,342 tons burden, cleared for Calcutta on the 12th of April last with a general cargo, such as is usually reported to the East Indies, but so far as can be ascertained from the entries she had neither gunpowder nor cannon on board. The Bahama steamer cleared from Liverpool on the 12th ultimo for Nassau. We find that Messrs. Fawcett, Preston & Co., engineers and iron-founders of Liverpool, shipped on board that vessel nineteen cases, containing guns, gun-carriages, shot, rammers, weighing, in all, 158 cwt. 1 qr. 27 lbs; there was no other cargo on board excepting 552 tons of coal for the use of the ship; and the above-mentioned goods having been regularly cleared for Nassau in compliance with the customs law, our officers could have no power to interfere with their shipment. With reference to the further statement in the letter of Mr. Dudley, the consul of the United States at Liverpool, that the bark that took out the guns and coal is to carry out another cargo of coal to the gun-boat 290, either from Cardiff or Troon, near Greenock, we have only to remark that there would be great difficulty in ascertaining the intention of any parties making such a shipment, and we do not apprehend that our officers would have any power of interfering with it were the coals cleared outwards for some foreign port in compliance with the law. (Signed) F. GOULBURN. W. R. GREY. No. 13. Mr. Adams to Earl Russell. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, October 9, 1862. (Received October 11.) MY LORD: I now have the honor to transmit to your lordship a copy of an intercepted letter which I have received from my government, being the further evidence to which I made allusion in my note to your lordship of the 30th of September, as substantiating the allegations made. of the infringement of the enlistment law by the insurgents of the United States in the ports of Great Britain. I am well aware of the fact to which your lordship calls my attention in the note of the 4th instant, the reception of which I have the honor to acknowledge, that Her Majesty's government are unable to go beyond the law, municipal and international, in preventing enterprises of the kind referred to. But in the representations which I have had the honor lately to make, I beg to remind your lordship that I base them upon evidence which applies directly to infringements of [15] the municipal law itself, and not to anything beyond it. The consequence of an omission to enforce its penalties is therefore necessarily that heretofore pointed out by eminent counsel, to wit, "the law is little better than a dead letter "" a result against which "the Government of the United States has serious ground of remonstrance.” I pray, &c., CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. [Inclosure in No. 13.] Mr. Mallory to Commander North, C. S. N. NAVY DEPARTMENT, SIR: Your letter of the 29th of March last reached me this morning. The department notified you on the 11th of January last that you would receive orders to command the second vessel then being built in England, but for reasons satisfactory to the department you were subsequently assigned to the command of the first vessel, the Florida, (Oreto,) now at Nassau, and any just ground for the " surprise and astonishment" in this respect at the department's action is not perceived. A commission as commander for the war was sent you on the 5th of May, and your failure to follow the Oreto, which left England about the 21st of March, and to take command of her as was contemplated, and as you were apprised by Captain Bullock on the 26th of March, is not understood, and has been productive of some embarrassment. Captain Bullock was nominated by the executive for his position in the navy under existing law, and was duly confirmed by the senate, and your protest to this department against the action of these co-ordinate branches of your government is out of place. Upon the receipt of this letter you will turn over to Lieutenant G. F. Sinclair the instructions which you may have received, together with any public funds in your hands, and return to the Confederate States in such manner as your judgment may direct. Should you not be provided with funds for this purpose, Commander Bullock will upon your application supply them. I am, &c., No. 14. S. H. MALLORY, Secretary of the Navy. Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. FOREIGN OFFICE, October 16, 1862. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th instant, inclosing a copy of an intercepted letter which you had received from the United States Government, being the further evidence with regard to the gun-boat No. 290, to which you alluded in your previous communication to me of the 30th ultimo; and with reference to your observations with regard to the infringement of the enlistment law, I have to remark that it is true the foreign-enlistment act, or any other act for the same purpose, can be evaded by very subtle contrivances, but Her Majesty's government cannot on that account go beyond the letter of the existing law. I am, &c., RUSSELL. |