credit of the insurgents in their Liverpool transactions.

By reason of these repeated acts of insincere neutrality, or of actual disregard of the duties of a neutral, the United States were great sufferers. Before arriving at Trinidad, the Sumter captured eleven American vessels. After leaving that port, and before arriving at Gibraltar, she captured six other vessels belonging to citizens of the United States. The injury did not stop there. The United States made diligent efforts to capture this vessel which was destroying their commerce. For this purpose they dispatched across the Atlantic two of their men-of-war, the Kearsarge and the Tuscarora. These vessels followed on the track of the Sumter, and the plans of the United States would have been successful had Earl Russell's instructions of January 31, 1862, been carried out toward the Sumter in the port of Gibraltar, as they were carried out toward the vessels of the United States in all the colonial ports of Great Britain.

Under these circumstances, the United States ask the Tribunal to find and certify as to the Sumter that Great Britain, by the acts or omissions hereinbefore recited or referred to, failed to fulfill the duties set forth in the three rules in Article

1 Bernard to Seward, Vol. II, page 485.

The Sumter.

jesty's principal Secretary of State for the Colonies. This approval seems to have been elicited by the complaints which had been made to the Governor by the Consul of the United States at that port. It may also be that Her Majesty's Government preferred to have the question settled, before it could be made the subject of diplomatic representation on the part of the United States.

In view of the rule as to supplies of coal which was soon after adopted by Her Majesty's Government, the United States insist, as they have already insisted in regard to the Sumter, that a supply of six hundred tons was greatly in excess of the needs of the Nashville. There are no means of knowing whether she had any coal on board at the time she arrived in the port of St. George. Assuming that she had none, the utmost she should have received was enough to take her back to Charleston, from which port she had just come in three days and a half. Instead of that, she received more than a supply for a voyage to Southampton. She left Bermuda on the afternoon of the 5th of November, and anchored in Southampton waters on the morning of the 21st of the same month,*

1 Duke of Newcastle to Governor Ord, Vol. II, page 558.

2 Wells to Ord, Vol. II, page 539.

3 Wells to Seward, Vol. II, page 540.

Captain Patey to the Secretary of the Admiralty, Vol. II, pages 543, 544.

The Nashville.

The Nashville. having destroyed at sea the United States merchant ship Harvey Birch' on the passage.

A correspondence ensued between Earl Russell and Mr. Adams as to the character of this vessel, in which Lord Russel said, "The Nashville appears to be a Confederate vessel of war." She was received as such, was "taken into dock for calking and other repairs," and "received one hundred and fifty tons of coal" on the 10th of January. On the 25th "Captain Patey, of Her Majesty's Navy, reported the Nashville coaled and necessary repairs completed."

On the 4th of the following February the Nashville left Southampton and proceeded to Bermuda, where she arrived on the evening of the 20th. On the day previous to that (the 19th) the Consul had received from the Governor the official notice already alluded to, that the Government of Her Britannic Majesty had determined not to allow the formation, in any British Colony, of a coal depot for the use of the vessels of war of the United States. The Government of the United States was, therefore, not a little astonished to learn from the Consul at Bermuda that the Nashville had taken on board one hundred

4

1Russell to Adams, Vol. II, page 555.

2 Vol. II, page 587.

3 Ord to Allen, Vol. II, page 590.

Adams to Seward, Vol. II, page 542.

and fifty tons of coal at that place, and that she left "under the escort of Her Majesty's steamer Spiteful."

These circumstances, in accordance with the principles hereinbefore stated, justify the United States in asking the Tribunal of Arbitration as to this vessel, to find and certify that Great Britain, by the acts or omissions hereinbefore recited or referred to, failed to fulfill the duties set forth in the three rules in Article VI of the Treaty of Washington or recognized by the principles of international law not inconsistent with such rules. Should the Tribunal exercise the power conferred upon it by Article VII of the Treaty, to award a sum in gross to be paid to the United States, they will ask that, in considering the amount so to be awarded, the losses of individuals in the destruction of their vessels and cargoes by the Nashville, and also the expenses to which the United States were put in the pursuit of that vessel, may be taken into account.

Allen to Seward, vol. II, page 591.

The Nashville.