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sible knowledge of all, had been brought within its reach. It left, too, the Queen's Proclamation as to this subject virtually revoked, and Her Majesty's subjects assured that it was no violation of international duty to break the blockade. It is worthy of remark that Lord Westbury, the Lord High Chancellor, gave a judicial decision to the same effect,' which was soon after followed by the High Court of Admiralty.2 The execu tive and judicial branches of the British Government were thus a second time brought into *accord in construing away Her Ma- [286] jesty's Proclamation.

Blockade running

the insurgent Gov.

Blockade-running throve, and Nassau and Bermuda prospered under these repeated decisions of Her Majesty's Government. The in partnership with Florida, too, arrived at Bermuda on the 16th of July, 1864, and remained there until the 27th, taking coal and sup plies on board; and this at a time when like permission was refused to the vessels of the United States.

ernment.

It was a favorite idea of the insurgent authorities from the beginning to become interested with Englishmen as partners in blockade-running. One contract to that effect has already been alluded to.

In July, 1864, McRae reported other contracts.3 Captain Bullock, with whom (he said) I [McRae] am directed by the Secretary of the Treasury to consult," was a party to the transaction. These contracts

66 made provisions for fourteen steamers, four to leave during the month of August, eight in December, and two in April, 1865."3 They were to be "built of steel, and to carry one thousand bales of cotton each, on a draught of seven feet water, and with an average speed of thirteen knots per hour."3 Arrangements were at the same time made for the purchase of supplies for Huse and Ferguson pending the fin*ishing of the vessels. The "Owl" was the first of these vessels [287] to arrive. The insurgent Navy Department claimed the right "to place a naval officer in charge of her in conformity with regulations." The treasury doubted this, but Mallory insisted upon his right. This drew from Bullock an indignant letter, complaining that the navy had taken these vessels. Good ships were building for the navy; why take these vessels, which were not suited for naval purposes.

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On the 5th of October, 1864, orders were given for more arms, and McRae was ordered to supply Huse with $50,000 for the purpose. On the 26th of November, Ferguson reports his doings in the purchase of woolen goods, and gives the reason for "making Liverpool his headquarters." As late as the 7th of January, 1865, McRae is ordered to pay to Bullock £105,000. The steamer "Laurel," the same which took the arms and men to the Shenandoah, was then in Wilmington. She was sent out with a cargo of cotton, with instructions to the officer in command to sell the steamer and the cotton, and to pay Bullock. £12,000 out of the proceeds, putting the balance to the credit of the treasury, with Fraser, Trenholm & Co. No efforts seem to [288] have been spared to sustain the dying fortunes of the insurreetion. The insurgents, at the last, fell into the unaccountable error of supposing that the British Government intended to interfere with their

11 Jurist N. S., 400.

Law Reports Admiralty and Ecclesiastical Courts, Browning, Vol. I, page 1.

3 McRae to Seddon, July 4, 1864, Vol. VI, page 163.

Mallory to Trenholin, September 21, 1864, Vol. VI, page 171.

5 Same to same, September 22, 1864, Vol. VI, page 172.

6 Bullock to McRae, November 1, 1864, Vol. VI, page 173.

7 Gorgas to Seddon, October 5, 1864, Vol. VI, page 172.

8 Ferguson to Lawton, November 26, 1864, Vol. VI, page 175.

9 Trenholm to Fraser, Trenholm & Co., December 24, 1864, Vol. VI, page 177.

blockade-running. They changed the apparent ownership of the Stag into the name of John Fraser & Co., lest it should be seized as "a transport owned by the Confederate States, engaged in the blockade." It is ncedless to say that the precaution was not required. Evidence had over and over again been laid before Lord Russell that these blockade-runners were, in fact, transports of the insurgents, carrying their funds for Liverpool, and bringing back their arms and munitions. of war, and that the operations of these vessels were brought clearly within the terms of the Foreign Enlistment Act; but he ever turned a deaf ear to the charges.

Continued partiality.

On the 15th of March, 1865, Mr. Adams complained of this matter for the last time. The United States steamer San Jacinto having been wrecked on the Bahamas, and her officers and crew having found shelter at Nassau, the "Honduras," also a man-of

war, was sent there for the purpose of paying in coin the claims [289] for salvage. *The Consul asked permission for the "Honduras" to

enter the port, which was refused, although the "Florida" had, less than six months before, remained eleven days at Bermuda, and taken on board a full supply of coal. In bringing this breach of hospitality to the notice of Earl Russell, Mr. Adams said: "I shall not seek to dwell on the painful impression this proceeding has made in the Naval Department of the United States, which at the same time had too much reason to be cognizant of the abuse made of that port by persons practically engaged in hostilities in violation of Her Majesty's Proclamation. There was no single day during the month in which this incident happened that thirty-five vessels, engaged in breaking the blockade, were not to be seen flaunting their contraband flags in that port. Neither has its hospitality been restricted to that hybrid class of British ships running its illegal ventures on joint account with the insurgent authorities in the United States. The Chameleon, not inaptly named, but before known as the Tallahassee, and still earlier as a British steamer fitted out from London to play the part of a privateer out of Wilmington, was lying at that very time in Nassau, relieved indeed of her guns, but still retaining all the attributes of her hostile

occupation. But a few days earlier the steamer Laurel, whose [290] history is already too well known to your Lordship, by my note

of the 7th instant, had reappeared after its assumption of the name of the Confederate States, and had there been not only received, but commissioned with a post mail to a port of Her Majesty's Kingdom. Lord Russell took no notice of Mr. Adams's charge, that many of these blockade-runners were, in fact, transports in the insurgent service, and that the ports of Nassau and Bermuda were depots of ordnance and quartermasters' stores. His only reply, made four days after the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, was a repetition of the old story, "there is nothing in the law of nations which forbids the attempt of neutral ship-owners or commanders to evade the blockade." To the last the British Government refused to interfere. The fears which induced the insurgents to try to cover up the ownership of the "Stag" were groundless. The partnership continued until the United States interfered, and closed the business, before the English partners could deliver the last vessels under the contract.

It is necessary to add a few words in regard to the closing operations of Bullock's department, before bringing this imperfect outline of Great Britain's violation of its duties as a neutral to a close.

'Trenholm to Mallory, December 17, 1864, Vol. VI, page 176.
2 Adams to Russell, Vol. I, page 709.
3 Russell to Adams, Vol. I, page 714.

*On the 30th of November, 1863, the London Times announced [291] that "the screw gun-vessel 'Victor,' recently purThe Rappahannock. chased from the Admiralty, has, as had been expected, passed into the hands of the Confederate Government." "The 'Victor, an old dispatch-boat belonging to Her Majesty's Navy, was one of a number of ships ordered by the Admiralty to be sold as worn out and unserviceable. An offer for her was accepted on the 14th of September, 1863, and on the 10th of November the hull was delivered to the order of the purchasers, Messrs. Coleman & Co., the masts, sails, and rigging having been previously removed, as the pivots and other fittings for guns." The steamer, instead of being taken away, remained at Sheerness, "refitting, under the direction of persons connected with the royal dock-yards." Many facts came to the knowledge of Mr. Adams, indicating that the vessel was intended for the insurgents. In pursuing his inquiries, however, the suspicions of the parties concerned were probably excited; for the vessel, "by no means prepared for sea, and with no adequate force to man her," was carried with the workmen actually engaged upon her, across the English Channel and taken into Calais. Mr. Adams called Lord Russell's attention to these *pro- [292] ceedings, and furnished him with evidence tending to show the guilt of the purchasers, and also that one Rumble, inspector of machinery afloat of Her Majesty's dock-yard, Sheerness, had been the principal person concerned in enlisting the crew. Rumble was subsequently tried and acquitted, although the proof against him was clear. As to the vessel, any doubt of her character was at once removed. The insurgent flag was hoisted, and she went into commission under the name of the Rappahannock in crossing the Channel, and she entered the port of Calais claiming to be an insurgent man-of-war. What was done there is described in the statement of the Solicitor General to the jury on the trial of Rumble: "The preparations for equipping, which had been interrupted, were proceeded with; a number of boiler-makers were sent for from England, and many of them were induced to leave their employment in the dock-yard without leave, and when they returned they were discharged as being absent without leave; attempts were made to enlist more men; a large store of coals was taken in; but at this point the French Government stepped in. The French Government, not choosing their ports to be made the scene of hostile operations, interposed, and prevented any further equipment of the vessel, *and [293] by the short and summary process of mooring a man-of-war across her bows, prevented her going out of the port, and she has been kept a prisoner in the harbor ever since." Contrast again the course of the French Government with that of the British Government in like cases. What vessel bearing a commission from the Richmond authorities was ever disturbed by a British gunboat, no matter how flagrant might have been her violations of British sovereignty?

The Shenandoah.

In the summer or autumn of the year 1864, there was in London a vessel called the Sea King. She was a merchant steamer which had belonged to a Bombay company, and had been employed in the East India trade. On the 20th of September in that year she was sold in London to Richard Wright, of Liverpool, the father

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in-law of Prioleau, of South Carolina, the managing partner in the Liverpool house of Fraser, Trenholm & Co.

On the 7th of October Wright gave a power of attorney to one Corbett, an Englishman, "to sell her at any time within six months for a sum not less than £45,000 sterling. On the next day she cleared for

Bombay, and sailed with a large supply of coal and about fifty [294] tons of metal and a *crew of forty-seven men." Corbett sold her

to the insurgents on the high-seas, or rather made the form of transfer comply with the facts of the original transaction which took place in England. On the day after the Sea King left London, the Laurel, a screw-steamer, "nearly new built, very strong, and admirably adapted for a privateer,"3 left Liverpool, clearing for Matamoras via Nassau. She took on board "a number of cases containing guns and carriages;" and she had twenty-one seamen, six stewards, besides deck-hands and firemen," as first reported by the Consul at Liverpool. Further information after she left led him to write that she had taken "about one hundred men, forty or fifty of whom were on the pirate Alabama, and all Englishmen."5 The two vessels met off Madeira. On the morning of the 18th of October they went together to the barren island of Porto Santo near Madeira, and there, with eighteen hours' work, transferred to the Sea King the arms and ammunition from the Laurel, “guns, gun-carriages, shot, shell, powder, clothing, goods, &c." The insurgent

commander of the Sea King and about forty men came out of the [295] Laurel and took possession of *the vessel, and named her the

Shenandoah; the insurgent flag was hoisted, the Laurel hoisted the English flag, and took on board some of the men of the Shenandoah, who could not be induced, even by "a bucketful of sovereigns," to aid in violating the Queen's Proclamation; and the two vessels separated. The next appearance of the Shenandoah in a British port was at Melbourne in January, 1865. Her character and history were well known, and were at once brought to the notice of the Governor by the Consul of the United States. The evidence was so clear that the authorities evidently felt they must go through the form of arresting and examining her. This was the shell conceded to the United States. The kernel was reserved for the insurgents. The vessel was discharged and allowed to make extensive repairs; to go upon a dry dock; to take on board three hundred tons of coal, having at the time four hundred tons on board; and the authorities deliberately shut their eyes while she enlisted about fifty men."

The Shenandoah, with its British crew, continued its career of destruction until long after the insurgents had abandoned the contest in [296] America. It was not until the 19th of June, 1865, that Bul*lock,

managing things to the last, issued his instructions to Captain Waddell to desist. This communication the Foreign Office undertook to forward to him." Captain Waddell arrived with his ship in the Mersey in November, 1865, and surrendered his ship to the British Government, by whom it was handed over to the United States.

1 Dudley to Seward, Vol. III, page 319.
2 Wilson's affidavit, Vol. III, page 326.
3 Dudley to Seward, Vol. III, page 316.
4 Dudley to Adams, Vol. III, page 317.
5 Dudley to Seward, Vol. III, page 318.
& Wilson's affidavit, Vol. III, page 325.
7 Vol. III, pages 393, 394, 396, 398.
8 Vol. III, pages 384-444.

9 Bullock to Waddell, Vol. III, page 457.
10 Hammond to Mark, Vol. III, page 459.

Mr. Mountague

scls detained by Great Britaill

It is due to Great Britain to say that, in addition to the rams, some other vessels were detained by Her Majesty's Government. Bernard's list of vos. Mr. Mountague Bernard, one of Her Majesty's High Commissioners at Washington, in his able and courteous, but essentially British, "Historical Account of the Neutrality of Great Britain during the American Civil War," thus recapitulates the action of the British Government in the cases which have not been hitherto noticed in this paper. From his position, it may reasonably be assumed that the list is a complete one:

*

*

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"November 18, 1862-The Hector. Mr. Adams's application referred to the Admiralty November 18. This was an inquiry whether the Hector was building for Her Majesty's Government. On reference to the Admiralty it was answered in the affirmative.-January 16, 1863-The Georgiana. Referred to Treasury and Home Office [297] January 17. Ship said to be fitting at Liverpool for the Confederates. Mr. Adams could not divulge the authority on which this statement was made. Reports from the customs, sent to Mr. Adams on the 18th, 19th, and 27th of January, tended to show that she was not designed for war. She sailed on the 21st of January for Nassau, and on the 19th of March was wrecked in attempting to enter Charleston Harbor.March 26, 1863-The Phantom and the Southerner. Referred to the Treasury and the Home Office March 27, to the Law Officers of the Crown June 2. The Phantom was fitting at Liverpool, the Southerner at Stockton-on-Tees. Both proved to be intended for blockade-runners. *-March 18, 1864-The Amphion. Referred to Home Office March 18. This vessel was said to be equipped for the Confederate service. The Law Officers reported that no case was made out. She was eventually sent to Copenhagen for sale as a merchant ship.-April 16, 1864-The Hawk. Referred to the Home Office, to the Lord Advocate, and the Treasury April 18. This case had been already (April 4) reported on by the customs, and the papers sent to the Lord Advocate. On the 13th of April the ship, which was suspected of having been built for the Confederates, left the Clyde without a register, and came to Greenhithe. The Law Officers *decided that there was no evi- [298] dence to warrant a seizure. She proved to be a blockade-runner. * * * January 30, 1885-The Virginia and the Louisa Ann Fanny. Referred to Treasury February 1. Vessels said to be in course of equipment at London. No case was established, and they proved to be blockade-runners, as reported by the Governor of the Bahamas, who had been instructed to watch their proceedings.-February 7, 1865-The Hercules and Ajax. Referred to Treasury and Home Office February 8 and 9. Both vessels built in the Clyde. The Ajax first proceeded to Ireland, and was detained at Queenstown by the mutiny of some of the crew, who declared she was for the Confederate service. She was accordingly searched, but proved to be only fitted as a merchaut-ship. The Governor of the Bahamas was instructed to watch her at Nassau. On her arrival there she was again overhauled, but nothing suspicious discovered, and the Governor reported that she was adapted, and he believed intended, for a tug-boat. The Hercules being still in the Clyde, inquiries were made by the customs officers there, who reported that she was undoubtedly a tug-boat, and the sister ship to the Ajax."

This is the whole catalogue of good works, additional to those already alluded to, which the accomplished advocate of Great Britain is able to put in as an offset to the simple story of injuries which [299] has been told in this paper. Comment upon it is unnecessary.

1 Bernard's Neutrality, page 352.

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