"Virginia." "Some seventy or eighty men, twice, the number that would be required for any legitimate voyage, were shipped at Liverpool for this vessel, and sent to Greenoch " A small steamer called the "Alar," belonging to a British subject was loaded with a large supply of guns, shells, shot, powder, &c.," and dispatched to meet her. The two vessels met off the French coast; the "Alar" was made fast alongside the "Japan," and in twenty-four hours the whole of the guns and ammunition were transferred. The "Japan" then dropped her Oriental name, hoisted the flag of the insurgents, and steamed away; one day's work after leaving the Clyde having converted her into an armed cruiser. It was not, however, until the 23d of the following June that her British register was canceled and the transfer made to foreign owners.5 Early in March, 1863, Miller & Son, the builders of the Florida, launched, at their yard in Liverpool, a new gun-boat, to be called the Alexandra. The evidence of the hostile uses for which this vessel was intended was so overwhelming that proceedings were instituted against her for a violation of 1 Underwood to Seward, January 16, 1863, Vol. VI, page 503. 2 Dudley to Mr. Seward, Vol. II, page 665. 3 Vol. II, page 666. 4 Mahon's affidavit, Vol. II, page 673. 5 Mr. Adams to Earl Russell, July 7, 1863, Vol. II, page 677. The Georgia. The Alexandra. The Alexandra. the Foreign Enlistment Act. In the trial of this case it was clearly proved that the Alexandra was a man-of-war, and that she was constructed for the purpose of carrying on hostilities against the United States. But the judge instructed the jury that a neutral might "make a vessel and arm it, and then offer it for sale" to a belligerent; and that, a fortiori, "if any man may build a vessel for the purpose of offering it to either of the belligerent Powers who is minded to have it, may he not execute an order for it?" He also instructed them that "to 'equip' is 'to furnish with arms;'" "in the case of a ship, especially, it is to furnish and complete with arms;" that "equip,' 'furnish,' 'fit out,' or 'arm,' all mean precisely the same See Vol. V, pages 1 to 470. "The evidence as to the build and fittings of the ship proved that she was strongly built, principally of teak-wood; her beams and hatches, in strength and distance apart, were greater than those in merchant vessels; the length and breadth of her hatches were less than the length and breadth of hatches in merchant vessels; her bulwarks were strong and low, and her upper works were of pitch-pine. At the time of her seizure workmen were employed in fitting her with stanchions for hammock nettings; iron stanchions were fitted in the hold; her three masts were up, and had lightning conductors on each of them; she was provided with a cooking apparatus for 150 or 200 people; she had complete accommodation for men and officers; she had only stowage room sufficient for her crew, supposing them to be 32 men; and she was apparently built for a gun-boat, with low bulwarks, over which pivot guns could play. The commander of Her Majesty's ship Majestic, stationed at Liverpool, said that she was not intended for mercantile purposes." (Neutrality of Great Britain during the American Civil War, by Mountague Bernard, M. A., page 353, note 1.) 3 Vol. V, page 128. 4 Vol. V, page 129. thing;" and he closed that branch of the instructions by saying, "the question is whether you think that this vessel was fitted. Armed she certainly was not, but was there an intention that she should be finished, fitted, or equipped, in Liverpool? Because, gentlemen, I must say, it seems to me that the Alabama sailed away from Liverpool without any arms at all; merely a ship in ballast, unfurnished, unequipped, unprepared; and her arms were put in at Terceira, not a port in Her Majesty's Dominions. The Foreign Enlistment Act is no more violated by that than by any other indifferent matter that might happen about a boat of any kind whatever." The jury gave a verdict without delay for the gun-boat. An appeal on this construction of the statute was taken to a higher court. The rulings of the judge on the trial were not reversed, and the decision stood as the law of England until and after the close of the rebellion, and still stands as the judicial construction of the act of 1819. The Alexandra. the Alexandra the Foreign Enlist Thus, after the political branch of Her Majesty's The rulings in Government had announced its purpose of limiting emasculated its duties to the enforcement of the Foreign En- ment Act. listment Act, and had practically stripped that act of all features except those relating to the prosecution of offenders as criminals, the judicial branch of that Government emasculated it by a ruling the Alexandra The rulings in which openly authorized the construction of new emasculated the Alabamas and of new Floridas. Foreign Enlistment Act. Lairds' iron-clad rams. Contracts were also made, some time in the year 1862 for the construction, at Glasgow, of a formidable vessel, known as the Pampero.. Mr. Dudley reported that the cost of the construction was to be something over £300,000. This vessel was seized at Glasgow for an alleged violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act. On the trial, which took place in 1864, it appeared that the Scottish courts were not disposed to follow the English courts in depriving the Foreign Enlistment Act of all force. The insurgents, therefore, abandoned the attempt to use the Pampero as a cruiser, and ceased to contract for the construction or fitting out of vessels within the Scottish Kingdom. A similar course in the English courts might have produced similar results in England. About the same time the arrangements were made with the Lairds for the construction, at Birkenhead, opposite Liverpool, of the two iron-clads which were afterwards known as "Lairds' ironclads," or "Lairds' rams." The keel of one of them, as has been already said, was laid in the same stocks from which the Alabama was launched. These vessels were most formidable, and were 1 Dudley to Seward, Vol. II, page 201. 2 Dudley to Seward, Vol. II, page 315. "pushed forward with all possible dispatch. The men were at work night and day upon them." The machinery and guns were made simultaneously with the hull, and it was reported that "by the time she is launched they will be ready to be placed in her.”1 2 Their construction was originally ordered from Richmond, and they were superintended by Captain Bullock, who was at that time in frequent correspondence with Mr. Mallory "about building the two above-named and other war vessels in England," "and about the money to pay for the same.' "2 "The drawings for them were in the office of Fraser, Trenholm & Co., as early as June, 1862, in Captain Bullock's hands."3 By the early part of April, 1863, "the hulls were complete, and the sides were covered with slabs of teak-wood about 1 Dudley to Seward, Vol. II, page 316. |