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imprisonment of these citizens naturally, I may also say justly, excites profound concern and sympathy in the United States. That sympathy is not effectually relieved by such general assurances, on the part of the lord lieutenant of Ireland, as we are favored with, that he has evidence. sufficient to justify their arrest under suspension of the habeas corpus, while this evidence is neither produced nor described. Even though an insurrection or rebellion may still continue a subject of apprehension in Ireland, that fact would seem insufficient to excuse or to justify indiscriminate arrests and long detentions of citizens of the United States sojourning in that country, without some examination or form of trial.

Will you seek an opportunity to confer upon this subject with Lord Stanley, in a friendly spirit, and inquire whether in his opinion we may entertain an expectation, either of the restoration of the writ of habeas corpus, or of the adoption of such discriminating proceedings as may be calculated to assure the safety of innocent and unoffending citizens of the United States.

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SIR: I have received your despatch of the 23d ultimo, No. 1457, informing me of the transfer of Colonels Nagle and Warren from Kilmainham jail to Mountjoy prison.

Thanking you for your attention in keeping me informed upon the subject, I trust that you will follow these cases up with renewed urgency.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

No. 1459.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
London, October 10, 1867.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the reception of despatches from the department, numbered from 2051 to 2062, inclusive, of a copy of a printed circular of the 5th of September, and likewise of the President's proclamation of the 3d of that month, to which it refers.

In regard to the main subject of interest, referred to in Nos. 2053, 2054, 2056, and 2058, touching the cases of Colonel Nagle and Captain Warren, I have reason to believe that the government will soon determine the question whether they will bring them to trial. Their release will turn upon it. Lord Stanley admitted to me that my demand was a reasonable one on that point. I think the government would now be glad to get rid of them, if they could be sure of their engaging in nothing new; but their confidence in the honor of parties entering into any engagements of this kind has been much impaired by the experience of the present year.

Should any further trials of United States citizens, arrested on suspicion, take place, I shall take care that you are fully furnished with reports of the

proceedings, as directed in your No. 2053, of the 13th of September. Had I not supposed they were regularly furnished by the consuls, I should have supplied them before now.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

No. 1463.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
London, October 12, 1867.

SIR: I have this morning received letters from Colonel Nagle and Captain Warren, announcing that they stand committed for trial by a commission to be held in Dublin on the 25th instant. They both apply to me for pecuniary aid in employing counsel for their defence. Under the instructions I have received, I shall venture to assume the responsibility of authorizing Mr. West to engage counsel to appear on their behalf.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

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SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 13th ultimo, No. 1448, relating to your proceedings in the cases of Colonels Nagle and Warren, and enclosing a copy of your notes of the 11th and 13th of September to Lord Stanley, concerning them.

In reply, you are informed that your action thus reported is approved, and that the instructions heretofore given to you indicate the views of the President in relation to these cases.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c.,*&c.

F. W. SEWARD,

Acting Secretary

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

No. 1464.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
London, October 16, 1867.

SIR: On the reception of your despatch No. 2055, of the 16th of September, I addressed a note of thanks to Lord Stanley in recognition of the efforts of Commander Broad and Mr. Consul Carroll to rescue the crew of the American bark Rover, wrecked at the island of Formosa. Copies of that letter and of his lordship's acknowledgments are transmitted herewith.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

*Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

Mr. Adams to Mr. Stanley.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
London, October 11, 1867.

MY LORD: From information officially received by the government which I have the honor to represent, it appears that, on the 26th of March last, Commander Broad, of her Majesty's sloop-of-war Cormorant, with a view to the rescue of such of the survivors of the American bark Rover (wrecked four days before, near the southern coast of Formosa) as might have fallen into the hands of the savages of that island, proceeded to the scene of this disaster, having on board a Chinaman as a guide, the only known relic of the crew.

On the arrival of Commander Broad at the place designated, the small boat of the Rover was discovered on the beach; but, on an attempt to land a force, a fire was received from a jungle so dense as to render it impossible to penetrate it with his small number of men; hence it became necessary to abandon the expedition. It is proper to add that Charles Carroll, esq., the British consul at Tam-suin, kindly interested himself in the matter, and actually accompanied the force for the purpose of rendering all the assistance in his power.

Under these circumstances, I am instructed to seize an early opportunity to express, through your lordship, to her Majesty's government the high appreciation entertained by my government of the generous and humane conduct of Commander Broad and Consul Carroll on this occasion..

I pray your lordship to accept, &c.,

Right Hon. LORD STANLEY, &c., &c., &c.

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Lord Stanley to Mr. Adams.

FOREIGN OFFICE, October 15, 1867. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 11th instant, relative to the wreck of the Rover, and I beg to express to you the satisfaction with which her Majesty's government have learnt the assistance which the consul at Tam-suin and Commander Broad were enabled to offer, though unhappily without a successful result, on that occasion.

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SIR: I have to acknowledge the reception from the department of despatches numbered from 2068 to 2071, inclusive.

In connection with the first two of these it is proper to state that the position of the British government has been so far changed since they were written as to remove the immediate necessity of a remonstrance. Most if not all the persons named by you are held for trial in the course of the next week.

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In consequence of my consent to authorize the employment of counsel to defend Colonel Nagle and Captain Warren, as stated in my despatch No. 1463, of last week, I learn from Mr. West that a general demand has been made by the others for similar assistance. Messrs. Nagle and Warren also not only required the appointment of separate counsel for each of them, but to dictate who they should be. I saw at once there was a good deal of danger that my proceeding would lead to a large expenditure of the public money by way of incidental benefaction to numbers of lawyers sympathizing with the Fenian agitation and irritating to the government.

I have, therefore, declined to authorize the employment of more than one person, leaving the selection, however, to be determined by friendly consultation with Messrs. Nagle and Warren. I have further pleaded inability to engage the government in the defence of the other persons, without reference to the

department for special authority. At the same time I have authorized the consul to employ some one to watch the cases and make report in the event of any injustice done.

Thus far I have had opportunities to observe that the persons implicated in these proceedings have not been without assistance, which I presume to have been supplied from friends of the Fenian association or sympathizers at home. It would doubtless be a great relief to them if the charges thus incurred could be shifted upon the United States. Under such circumstances it seems to be incumbent upon me to be cautious in involving the government in pecuniary engagements of indefinite extent without any authority or opportunity of consultation with it.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

No. 1467.]

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

Legation of thE UNITED STATES,
London, October 23, 1867.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the reception of despatches from the department numbered 2072 and 2073.

At an interview which I had with Lord Stanley some days since I gave him the substance of your despatch No. 2049, of the 30th of August, and, at his request, consented to his taking, informally, a copy of it. His lordship has now sent me an unofficial note, covering a confidential memorandum from Lord Mayo on the subject, which he desires may be forwarded to you. I therefore now transmit a copy of it.

The main point involved in your suggestions, whether the government here would accept a passport as evidence of citizenship, seems to be evaded by this reply. I imagine that it is feared it may revive the old question of the right of expatriation, which we had succeeded in putting in abeyance for the time. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

[Confidential.]

OCTOBER 17, 1867.

Mr. Seward states, in a letter to Mr. Adams, copy of which was forwarded to me by Lord Stanley, "that it has happened several times that American citizens travelling without passports have been arrested in Ireland and denied the good offices of the United States until they could procure evidence of citizenship, to be sent from the United States."

As this is an important statement, and one that shows Mr. Seward is somewhat in error as to the course pursued, I beg to say that I have carefully searched the correspondence with the American consul, and the letter of which I annex a copy (A) is the only one I can find suggesting that the consul should adduce proof of the naturalization of the prisoner concerning whom he interferes.

Immediately after the passing of the habeas corpus suspension act he was informed (copy letter B herewith) that in the case of an Irish-born subject of her Majesty the government cannot recognize any right of the consul to interfere; and in every such case that occurred during the time Lord Kimberley was lord lieutenant the consul was always informed that although as a matter of courtesy his excellency would be glad to communicate with him as to any prisoner in whose case he was interested, yet, that if a prisoner be a natural-born subject of her Majesty, he cannot, by any course he may have subsequently pursued in America,

divest himself of his allegiance to her Majesty, and must be treated as an ordinary subject, and that therefore his excellency must reserve the right of declining to discuss with the consul of any foreign power the conduct of her Majesty's government regarding such prisoners. This rule, however, was subsequently relaxed in practice, and the consul has been since communicated with in the ordinary way concerning any prisoner who claims to be an American citizen.

Mr. Murray, D. C. P., however, informs me that Mr. West has frequently told prisoners under his (Mr. Murray's) care that he will not interfere on behalf of a prisoner without some proof of naturalization, and that he has told Mr. Murray himself that such were the instructions he had received from his own government.

DUBLIN CASTLE, May 23, 1867.

SIR: With reference to your letter of the 16th instant, relative to the case of Edward McGingan, at present confined in Mountjoy prison, I am directed by the lord lieutenant to acquaint you that his excellency has reason to believe that this man is a natural-born subject of the Queen, and that he does not feel it consistent with his duty to release him from custody. I am to add that, in giving, you this reply as a matter of courtesy, his excellency thinks it right to point out that no evidence is adduced that McGingan is a citizen of the United States, either natural-born or naturalized; and that in the case of naturalized United States citizens the production of their papers of naturalization is the only evidence which can be accepted as satisfactory.

W. B. WEST, Esq.,

United States Consul, Dublin, Ireland.

T..A. LARCOM.

B.

DUBLIN CASTLE, February 28, 1867.

SIR: I am directed by the lord lieutenant to acknowledge your communication of the 24th instant, and to inform you that the three persons named by you, viz., John H. and Joseph Gleeson and Bernard McDermott, are Irish-born subjects of her Majesty, and that, notwithstanding any course which they may have pursued in the United States of America, they still, in this country, must be regarded as ordinary subjects of her Majesty, bound by the allegiance they owe to her as their sovereign, and they must be dealt with accordingly. His excellency cannot, therefore, recognize any right on your part (as consul of the United States of America) to interfere in respect of the prisoners in question on the ground of their being citizens of the United States.

W. B. WEST, Esq,

United States Consul, Dublin.

THOS. A. LARCOM.

No. 1469.]

:

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
London, October 26, 1867.

SIR I have to acknowledge the reception this morning of despatch No. 2074, of the 15th instant, from the department, on the cases of Colonel Nagle and Captain Warren.

Although I have instructed Mr. West to transmit to you from Dublin the published reports of the trial, I venture, for further security, to send herewith a copy of the Dublin Evening Mail, containing a report of the charge of the lord chief baron to the jury at the opening.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

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