Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. No. 563.] . DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have received your despatch (No. 367) of the 8th instant, and its enclosure. Your proceedings in the case of the steamer Japan are approved, and the prompt steps taken at the foreign office in the matter are highly satisfactory. Your despatch will be submitted to the Secretary of the Navy. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. No. 385.] Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF the United States, SIR: I have to acknowledge the reception of despatches from the department, numbered from 534 to 541, both inclusive. In respect to the directions contained in your, No. 538, of the 2d instant, I am pleased to reflect that everything has already been done that is possible in the way indicated. Before this reaches you, information will have been received of the decision of the government to detain the Alexandra, of the investigations ordered by it, and of the result. I have no doubt that it is now their intention to commence criminal prosecutions of some of the parties concerned. The effect produced in Liverpool by this intelligence has been to stop, for the time, the prosecution of all work of that particular kind-fighting ships. You will also have learned my offer, on behalf of the United States, to co-operate in the proceedings in any manner that the government would prefer. I think it is a wise decision, on their part, to go on themselves, for there can be little doubt that we should fail if we attempted it. The ministry will be obliged to breast a good deal of opposition in the process, and they subject themselves to heavy responsibilities if they fail. I feel bound to give them credit for their late action, and hope that it may tend to allay the excitement against them now running high in America. In a casual conversation with the Queen's advocate, on the subject, last evening, I felt a little uneasiness at the prospect of a jury trial. I suggested the inexpediency of holding the court at Liverpool. He replied that a change of venue would be necessary. It is no more than right to do justice to the wish to preserve the peace of the two countries that prompts this action. I only wish most heartily that it could have developed itself sooner, and when the risk would have been less. In any event, it is well always to bear in mind whose game we are most effectually playing by hazarding a rupture. In the mean time almost all the disposable steam vessels in this country and some on the continent are being bought up at any cost, apparently to prosecute the business of running the blockade. Whatever proceeds may be obtained from the loan, over and above the satisfaction of creditors, are likely soon to evaporate under the lavish expenditures made for these objects. Though not suited for war ships, it is not impossible that they may be to some extent used in that way. The Georgiana, the Alexandra, and the Virginia are all vessels of this class. Even if the vessels could succeed in their object, I am at a loss to perceive any other result of their present recklessness than absolute ruin. 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. [Extract.] No. 386.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, April 23, 1863. SIR: I have the honor to transmit a copy of a note of Lord Russell, dated yesterday, in answer to mine of the 6th instant, a copy of which accompanied my despatch No. 369, of the 9th of April. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, &c. Lord Russell to Mr. Adams. FOREIGN OFFICE, April 22, 1863. SIR: In acknowledging the receipt of the further letter which you did me the honor to address to me, on the 6th instant, on the subject of the intercepted correspondence, I will merely add that, while entirely assenting to the principles laid down in the authorities to which you refer, I am still unable to perceive their application to any facts which have occurred in this country within the cognizance of her Majesty's government. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq. RUSSELL. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. No. 389.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, April 24, 1863. SIR: Lord Russell has this week renewed the correspondence in respect to the Sumter. I transmit a copy of his note of the 20th instant. SIR: There are several statements in your letter of the 14th of March respecting the sale of the Sumter, at Gibraltar, to a British owner, upon which, if any advantage were likely to result from further discussion of the subject, I should feel it right to observe. But it appears to me sufficient to say, that you seem to have confounded, both in your reasoning upon the subject and in your reference to authority, the positions of a neutral and belligerent in regard to the sale of ships belonging to another belligerent, and to have forgotten, as in the instance of your reference to a statement in a passage on the law of prize, that no neutral State, such as Great Britain now is, administers prize law in favor of either belligerent. The neutral and belligerent have distinct right in the matter; the neutral has a right to acquire such property offered to him for purchase; but the belligerent may, in the particular circumstances in the case, not recognize the transfer of such property as being that of his enemy, only parted with to the neutral in order to protect it from capture on the high seas. The prize court of the belligerent, when property so circumstanced is brought before it, decides whether the transfer is fair or fraudulent. The British government, when neutral, is not bound to refuse to a British subject the right to acquire, by purchase, a vessel which a belligerent owner may desire to part with, but it would not deny the right of the adverse belligerent to ascertain, if such vessel were captured by its cruisers, whether the vessel had rightfully, according to the law of nations, come into the possession of the neutral; and if Great Britain were herself belligerent, she would not complain of a neutral government allowing one of its subjects to acquire, by purchase, a vessel which her adversary might desire to part with, though she would have the right of capturing such vessel on the high seas, and sending it before the prize court for judgment as to whether the vessel has rightfully, according to the law of nations, become the property of a neutral owner. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. RUSSELL. Mr. Adams to Lord Russell. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, MY LORD: I have carefully re-examined the positions taken in my note of the 14th of March, to which your lordship refers in yours of the 20th instant, as I always do when called upon by any comments you are pleased to make to me. But I confess myself at a loss to see the force of your objections. I did not forget the fact that no neutral state administers prize law in favor of either belligerent. In the case of the Sumter, though I tried to explain the law in its fullest extent, as applied to all belligerent vessels, whether war ships or merchantmen, I called your lordship's particular attention to the fact that her Majesty's government had recognized the Sumter as a war ship of a belligerent, in the port of Gibraltar, and to the further fact that it had never recognized the transfer of such a vessel to a neutral as valid, either in the exposition of public law, as given by high authority in Great Britain, or in the practice of the nation when itself a belligerent. Hence it would appear as if Great Britain were now disposed to recognize the validity of an act of a belligerent towards herself, a neutral, which, as a belligerent, she had always refused to acknowledge when attempted by any other neutral nation. I cannot permit myself to imagine that your lordship has really intended to place Great Britain in a position which. seems, to my view, singularly at war as much with the first principles of justice as with the reciprocal obligations of international law. I pray your lordship to accept the assurances of the highest consideration with which I have the honor to be, my lord, your most obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Right Hon. EARL RUSSELL. No. 391.] Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I transmit a copy of a note from Lord Russell to me, of the 21st instant, respecting the departure of the Japan, alias the Virginia. I have no reason to doubt the correctness of the representations therein made of the condition of that vessel. Indeed, this will account for the fact that I had not myself received from any of the consuls information of her readiness for a voyage until after she was gone. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. Lord Russell to Mr. Adams. FOREIGN OFFICE, April 21, 1863. SIR: I stated to you in my letter of the 16th instant that your letter of the previous day, respecting the case of the Japan, otherwise the Virginia, had been referred to the proper departments of her Majesty's government; but I will not delay informing you that her Majesty's government have received from the authorities at Glasgow and at Greenock reports, from which it appears that that vessel was constantly visited while she was in course of construction, and that the surveys seemed to show that she was intended for commercial purposes, and that her frame-work and plating were of the ordinary sizes for vessels of her class. She was entered on the 31st ultimo as for Point de Galle and Hong Kong, with a crew of forty-eight men. She shipped on the 1st instant the bonded 115 gals. spirits. 32 gals. wine. 244 lbs. tea. 159 lbs. coffee. 212 lbs. tobacco. 10 cigars. stores stated in the margin, and she cleared on the same day in ballast for Point de Galle and Hong Kong. Her Majesty's government are further informed that the Japan left the anchorage early on the morning of the 2d instant with the ostensible purpose of trying her engines, intending to return, having on board several joiners, who were filling up her cabins. These men, who are said to have been employed at a later time in filling up a magazine, were subsequently landed on some part of the coast lower down the Clyde. 18 cwt. 3, 2, sugar. 2 2 1, 5, raisins. 1 12, currants. The custom-house officer, who visited the Japan on the evening of the 1st instant to see that her stores were correct, reports that he saw nothing on board which could lead him to suspect that she was intended for war purposes. Her Majesty's government are further informed that she was not heavily sparred, and that she could not spread more canvas than an ordinary merchant steamer. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq. RUSSELL. No. 392.] Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: Her Majesty's government does not seem yet to be quite satisfied of the sincerity of my denials of the enlistinent of men in this kingdom under the authority of the United States. I transmit a copy of two more notes which have passed on the subject. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. Lord Russell to Mr. Adams. FOREIGN OFFICE, April 16, 1863. SIR With reference to your letter of the 10th instant, in which you repeated the denial you had formerly made of the truth of the report that men were being recruited in this country for the United States army, I think it right to communicate to you the substance of a report which has just been made to her Majesty's government with regard to the number of persons who are now being shipped as emigrants from Queenstown for New York. It is stated that within the last fortnight 1,278 emigrants have sailed, the greater number being strong, active young men; that it cannot be doubted that they are intended for the United States army, and that, in fact, many of them do not deny it. A certain number of these men were militiamen from Cork and its vicinity, and they informed the emigration officer that they would get from $250 to $300 bounty. It also appears that the prospect of this large bounty has been held out to young men, by general rumor, throughout the country. It is further stated that the friends of these persons in America are paid so much for obtaining and bringing them out to New York. I do not think it necessary to encumber this letter with further statements of a more or less trustworthy character which have reached her Majesty's government corroborative of this asserted recruiting of her Majesty's subjects for service in the United States army, and I shall therefore merely add that I am informed that about 800 young men were booked to sail from Queenstown by the steamer of the 9th instant, it being freely spoken of that all the young men were going to join the northern army, and that although the Inman Company have put on additional steamers, the number of applicants for passage is so great that they cannot all be accommodated, and that several hundreds are consequently left behind each week. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq. RUSSELL. Mr. Adams to Lord Russell. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, MY LORD: I am very much obliged to you for the courtesy extended to me in the communication of the substance of a report which has been made to her |