Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. LONDON: PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS. Further Correspondence respecting the Enlistment of British No. 1. Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. Sir, Foreign Office, March 31, 1864. I HAVE the honour to bring to your notice an account taken from a newspaper of what passed at a trial before Mr. Justice Keogh of the British subjects indicted for having taken service in the United States' ship "Kearsarge," at Queenstown, in violation of the provisions of the Foreign Enlistment Act, and with reference to the correspondence which has passed between us. I have the honour to request that you will inform me whether you have any explanations to offer on the subject. I am, &c. (Signed) RUSSELL. Inclosure in No. 1. Extract from the " Dublin Evening Mail" of March 16, 1864. JOHN SULLIVAN, John Murphy, Edward Pyburn, Thomas Murphy, Denis Leary, and Daniel O'Connell, were indicted for having on the 4th November, 1863, agreed to enter service as sailors on board a vessel of war of the United States of America, called the Kearsarge," contrary to the provisions of the Foreign Enlistment Act. The Right Honourable the Attorney-General, M.P., Sir Colman O'Loghlen, Q.C., M.P., C. R. Barry, Q.C., James O'Hea, George Waters, and J. C. Neligan, appeared for the Crown. Mr. J. C. Coffey, instructed by Mr. C. P. Wallis, appeared to watch the proceedings on behalf of the Confederate States of America. The prisoners were undefended. They were all young men of very respectable appearance, and wore the naval dress of American sailors. They pleaded" guilty," one of them saying that they did not think it was any harm. The Attorney-General said that the object of his attendance had been to some extent accomplished. The traversers had wisely submitted, for the evidence against them was conclusive. The law had been vindicated in the first and only case in which it had been possible to prove an infringement of the Foreign Enlistment Act in Ireland; and he took that opportunity of announcing to the people the nature of that statute, the mischief which it aimed to prevent, and the determination of the Executive to enforce its provisions. The Act 29 Geo. III, cap. 69, presented in the briefest untechnical language, forbade any natural-born subject of the Queen, without her express authority, to enlist, or to induce others to enlist, in any foreign service, military or naval, under pain of fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the Court. The policy of this law was manifestly wise and B 2 [203] |