382 



laid before the commissioners. While the sub- 

 ject was under their consideration the 290 

 sailed from Liverpool, without register or clear- 

 ance. The captain of the Tuscarora was im- 

 mediately notified by Mr. Adams and he started 

 in pursuit. Earl Kussell, in a conference with 

 Mr. Adams, stated that a delay in determining 

 upon the case had most unexpectedly been 

 caused by the sudden development of a malady 

 of the Queen's advocate, Sir John D. Harding, 

 totally incapacitating him for the transaction 

 of business. This had made it necessary to call 

 in other parties, whose opinion had been at 

 last given for the detention of the gunboat, but 

 before the order got down to Liverpool the 

 vessel was gone. He should however send 

 directions to have her seized if she went, as was 

 probable, to Nassau. Instructions were also 

 despatched to Ireland to detain the vessel, if 

 she put in to Queenstown. 



On the 30th of Sept. Mr. Adams wrote to 

 Earl Russell, relating the injuries done by the 

 290 or Alabama, saying, " I have strong reasons 

 to believe that still other enterprises of the 

 same kind are in progress in the ports of Great 

 Britain at this time. Indeed they have attained 

 so much notoriety, as to be openly announced 

 in the newspapers of Liverpool and London." 

 Earl Russell, acknowledging the letter, in reply 

 said : "I have to state to yon that, much as 

 her Majesty's Government desire to prevent 

 such occurrences, they are unable to go beyond 

 the law, municipal and international." 



On the 9th of October Mr. Adams enclosed 

 to Earl Russell the following intercepted let- 

 ter, " as substantiating the allegations made of 

 the infringement of the enlistment law by the 

 insurgents of the United States in ports of 

 Great Britain." He also added : " In the repre- 

 sentations which I have had the honor lately to 

 make, I beg to remind your lordship that I 

 base them upon evidence which applies di- 

 rectly to infringements of municipal law itself, 

 and not to anything beyond it." 



may have received, together with any public funds in 

 your hands, and return to the Confederate States in 

 such manner as your judgment may direct. 



Should you not be provided with funds for this pur- 

 pose, Commander Bullock will, upon your application, 

 supply them. 



I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, 



S. H. MALLORY, Secretary of the Navy. 



Commander JAS. H. NORTH, 



C. S. N., London, England. 



CONFEDERATE STATES or AMERICA. ) 

 JNAVY DEPARTMENT, RICHMOND, July 12, 1S62. ( 



SIR: Your letter of the 29th of March last reached 

 me this morning. 



The department notified you, on the llth of January 

 last, that you would receive orders to command the 

 second vessel then being built in England, but for rea- 

 sons satisfactory to the department, you were subse- 

 quently assigned to the command of the first vessel, 

 the i lorida (Oreto), now at Nassau, and any just ground 

 for " the surprise and astonishment" in this respect at 

 the department a action is not perceived 



A commission as commander for the war was sent 

 you on the 5th of May, and your failure to follow the 

 Oreto, which left England about the 21st of March, and 

 to take command of her, as was contemplated and as 

 you were apprised by Captain Bullock, on the 26th of 

 March, is not understood, and has been productive of 

 some embarrassment. 



Captain Bullock was nominated by the executive for 

 his position in the navy under existing law, and was 

 duly confirmed by the Senate, and jour protest to this 

 department against the action of these coordinate 

 branches of your government is out of place. 



Upon the receipt of this letter you wfll turn over to 

 Lieutenant G. F. Sinclair the instructions which you 



On the 16th of October Mr. Adams writes 

 home to Mr. Seward that, "It is very manifest 

 that no disposition exists here to apply the 

 powers of the Government to the investigation 

 of the acts complained of, flagrant as they are, 

 or to the prosecution of the offenders. The 

 main object must now be to make a record 

 which may be of use at some future day." 



Among the papers laid before Earl Russell 

 by Mr. Adams was an affidavit of a person who 

 sailed from Liverpool in the 290, stating that 

 arms were furnished to her in or near Augra 

 Bay, part of the Azores. To which Earl Rus- 

 sell replies that the transaction does not appear 

 to have taken place in any part of .the United 

 Kingdom, or of her Majesty's dominions, but in 

 part of the Portuguese dominions. No offence, 

 therefore, cognizable by the laws of the coun- 

 try, appears to have been committed by the 

 parties engaged in the transaction. Respect- 

 ing a statement in a letter of the American 

 consul at Liverpool, that a bark was to take out 

 a cargo of coals, either from Cardiff or Troon, 

 near Greenock, for the 290, Earl Russell re- 

 plies that " there would be great difficulty in 

 ascertaining the intention of any parties making 

 such a shipment; and we do not apprehend that 

 pur officers would have any power of interfer- 

 ing with it, were the coals cleared outward for 

 some foreign port in compliance with the law." 

 No further correspondence relative to the 290 

 and the Oreto took place. (See NAVY, CON- 

 FEDERATE.) 



The discussions between the two Govern- 

 ments relating to these vessels were also ex- 

 tended to the subject of furnishing supplies 

 to the Confederate States by means of vessels 

 fitted out in English ports to run the blockade. 

 On the llth of March, Mr. Seward wrote to 

 Mr. Adams that information had been received 

 that insurance companies in England were in- 

 suring vessels engaged in running the blockade, 

 and even vessels carrying contraband of war. 

 This, he said, " was, in effect, a combination of 

 British capitalists, under legal authority, to levy 

 war against the United States. It is entirely 

 inconsistent with the relations of friendship, 

 which we, on our part, maintain toward Great 

 Britain." Earl Russell, in reply to the repre- 

 sentations of Mr. Adams, said: "The matter 

 shall have the due consideration of her Ma- 

 jesty's Government." On the 25th of March, 

 Mr. Adams writes to Earl Russell as follows: 



It is obvious that just in proportion to the success 

 ot the efforts made by the ill-intentioned people of 

 foreign countries to violate the blockade must be the 

 endeavors to enforce it with increased stringency. So, 

 also, in proportion to the success of such persona in 



