BLOCKADE. 



BRAZIL. 



'197 



blockade is effective. The reason was that con- 

 siderable prudence is necessary in this Ameri- 

 can question, and that it is important that the 

 powers interested should act in concert. Those 

 powers do not think that the effective charac- 

 ter of the blockade can be denied, and they re- 

 spect it." 



In the month of June a memorial from cer- 

 tain British merchants and shipowners in Liver- 

 pool was addressed to Earl Russell, as principal 

 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, iu which 

 they stated that they viewed with considerable 

 anxiety and apprehension the hostile attitude 

 assumed by Federal cruisers in the Bahama 

 waters, and prayed that steps might be taken 

 to protect British shipping in those waters, and 

 to put a check on the seizures so repeatedly 

 made by those cruisers. The reply of Earl 

 Russell, on July 5, was as follows : 



I am to state to you, in reply, that it is alleged, on 

 the other hand, by Mr. Seward and Mr. Adams, that 

 ships have been sent from this country to America with 

 a fixed purpose to run the blockade ; that high pre- 

 miums of insurance have been paid with this~view; 

 and that arms and ammunition have been thus convey- 

 ed to the Southern States to tenable them to carry on 

 the war. Lord Russell was unable either to deny the 

 truth of those allegations or to prosecute to conviction 

 the parties engaged in those transactions. But he can- 

 not be surprised that the cruisers of the United States 

 should watch with vigilance a port which is said to be 

 the great entrepot of this commerce. Her Majesty's 

 Government have no reason to doubt the equity and 

 adherence to legal requirement of the United 8 

 prize courts. But he is aware that many vessels are 

 subject to harsh treatment, and that, if captured, the 

 loss to the merchant is far from being compensated 

 even by a favorable decision of the prize court. The 

 true remedy would be that the merchants and ship- 

 owners of Liverpool should refrain from this species 

 of trade. It exposes innocent commerce to vexatious 

 detention and search by American cruisers ; it produces 

 irritation and ill-will on the part of the population of 

 the Northern States of America; it is contrary to the 

 spirit of her Majesty's proclamation ; and it exposes 

 the British name to suspicions of bad faith, to which 

 neither her Majesty's Government nor the great body 

 of the nation are justly obnoxious. It is true indeed 

 that supplies of arms and ammunition have been sent 

 to the Federals, equally in contravention of that neu- 

 trality which her Majesty has proclaimed. It is true 

 also that the Federals obtain more freely and more 

 easily that of which they stand in need. ' But if the 

 Confederates had command of the sea they would no 

 doubt watch as vigilantly, and capture as readily, 

 British vessels going to New York as the Federals no'w 

 watch Charleston and capture vessels seeking to break 

 the blockade. There can be no doubt that the watch- 

 fulness exercised by Federal cruisers to prevent sup- 

 plies reaching the Confederates by sea will occasionally 

 lead to vexatious visits of merchant ships not engaged 

 in any pursuit to which the Federals can properly ob- 

 ject. This, however, is an evil to which war on the 

 ocean is liable to expose neutral commerce, and her 

 Majesty's Government have done all they can fairly do ; 

 that is to say, they have urged the Federal Government 

 to enjoin upon their naval officers greater caution in 

 the exercise of their belligerent rights. Her Majesty's 

 Government, having represented to the United States 

 Government every case in which they were justified in 

 interfering, have only further to observe that it is the 

 duty of her Majesty's subjects to conform to her Maj- 

 esty's proclamation, and abstain from furnishing to 

 either of the belligerent parties any of the means of 

 war which are forbidden to be furnished by that proc- 

 lamation. 



No further questions arose respecting the 

 effectiveness of the blockade. Some correspond- 

 ence took place between the governments of the 

 United States and England relative to certain 

 prizes which were captured, and to fitting out 

 la in the latter country for the purpose of 

 running the blockade, for which see DIPLOMATIC 

 CORRESPONDENCE and UNITED STATES. 



BRAZIL, a vast empire of South America, 

 is bounded on the E. and S. E. by the Atlantic 

 Ocean, on the X. by Guiana and Venezuela, 

 and on the TT. and S. V. by Ecuador, Peru, 

 Bolivia. Paraguay, the Argentine Republic, and 

 the Republic of Uruguay. It has a coast line 

 of upward of 3,700 miles. Its greatest diame- 

 ter is, east to west, from Cape Augustin, S. lat. 

 8 21', "W\ long. 34 56', to the river Yavari, 

 which separates it from Peru, 2,630 miles, and 

 north to south, from Cape Orange, N. lat. 4 

 23', W. long. 37 27', to the river Tahim. 2.540 

 miles. Its total area is roughly estimated at 

 3,956,800 sq. m. 



Politically, it is now divided into 20 prov- 

 inces, the population of which, in 1856, to- 

 gether with the name of the capital and the 

 number of senators and deputies elected by 

 each, are exhibited in the following table : 



Toward the close of the year 1862 a serious 

 difficulty arose between the Government? of 

 Brazil and Great Britain from the refusal of 

 the Brazilian Government to admit certain 

 claims which Mr. Christie, the British minister 

 at Rio de Janeiro, had made. The facts, as far 

 as can be ascertained, were as follows : 



.In June, 1861, the British consul at Rio 

 Grande do Sul heard, that a Brazilian magis- 

 trate of Albardao. a wild and half peopled por- 

 tion of the Brazilian coast iu the province of 

 Rio Grande do Sul, had mentioned in conver- 

 sation that the dead bodies of Englishmen had 

 been washed on shore near his house, but he 

 denied that there had been any wreck. This 

 led to an inquiry, the consul having reason to 

 suspect that a British vessel had been wrecked 

 on the coast, and that that wreck had taken 

 place some days previously to the conversation 

 in which the Brazilian magistrate had taken 



