DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



383 



supplying, by violation of law, the insurgents with the 

 means of continuing their resistance, must be the de- 

 lay in restoring to all honest people the customary fa- 

 cilities of trade and intercourse to which they are 

 justly entitled. It has not been without great regret 

 that the Government has been compelled to observe the 

 extent to which her Majesty's flag has been abused to 

 subserve the purposes of the disaffected, and thus to 

 continue the present depressed condition of legitimate 

 trade. A very great proportion of the vessels which 

 attempted to violate the blockade appear to be fitted 

 out directly from Great Britain, or some of her depen- 

 dencies. "The effect of permitting such violations of 

 good faith to go unnoticed by Government is not 

 merely to create an unfortunate degree of irritation in 

 America, implicating many far beyond the sphere of 

 the unworthy parties concerned in producing it, but to 

 postpone proportionately the prospect of bringing 

 about a better state of things. It is for this reason, as 

 well as from a desire earnestly felt by the President to 

 maintain unbroken all the customary relations of amity 

 with Great Britain, that I have been directed to make 

 the present representation. Any suggestion of the 

 means best adapted to remedy the evils complained of 

 is deemed a matter exclusivefy within the competency 

 of those in whom the decision to act is vested. 



On the 27th, Earl Russell replied as follows : 



The charge that nearly all the assistance now ob- 

 tained from abroad by persons still in arms against the 

 Government of the United States, and which enables 

 them to continue the struggle, comes from Great Brit- 

 ain and its dependencies, is somewhat vague. I be- 

 lieve the greater part of the arms and ammunition 

 sent from this country to America during the struggle 

 has gone to the United States. 



I agree with you in the statement that the duty of 

 nations in amity with each other is not to suffer their 

 good faith to be violated by ill-disposed persons within 

 their borders, merely from the inefficiency of their pro- 

 hibitory policy. But it is, at the same time, a duty 

 not to punish persons on suspicion, without any proof 

 of their evil intent. It is not the custom of this coun- 

 try to deprive any person of liberty or property with- 

 out evidence of some offenee. If such evidence can 

 be obtained, the laws are sufficient to prevent the ac- 

 complishment of their evil designs against friendly na- 

 tions. 



You have not yourself hitherto furnished me with 

 evidence that any vessel has received a hostile or war- 

 like equipment in British waters, which has been after- 

 ward used against the United States. The care that 

 was taken to prevent the warlike equipment of the 

 Nashville in British waters must be familiar to your 

 recollection. 



With regard to cooperation with the policy of the 

 United States in respect to the blockade, I must re- 

 mind you that Great Britain has abstained, as far as 

 possible, from complaints of the irregularity of the 

 blockade which has been instituted. 



Her Majesty's government have been mindful of the 

 suddenness of the danger with which the United States 

 were threatened ; of the inadequacy of the naval force 

 then at the disposal of the Government, and of the 

 great difficulty of blockading a coast of three thousand 

 miles. But beyond forbearance and a liberal interpre- 

 tation of the "law of nations in favor of the United 

 States, her Majesty's Government cannot go. If by co- 

 operation with the policy of the United States is 

 meant either taking part in the civil war still raging, 

 or imposing restraints on the Queen's subjects un- 

 known to international law, I cannot undertake that 

 her Majesty's Government will adopt either of those 

 courses. It would be an unheard-of measure to pro- 

 hibit merchants from sending ships to sea destined to 

 the Southern ports. Should such ships attempt to vio- 

 late the blockade, capture and condemnation are the 

 proper penalty of such attempts. No authority can 

 be found for any other. 



On the 4th of April, Mr. Seward again re- 



quests Mr. Adams to bring the subject to the 

 notice of Earl Russell, " in the hope that the 

 time may have at last come when Briti.-h sub- 

 jects, deliberately and wickedly engaged as 

 abettors in the existing warfare against the 

 Government, may be subjected to some restraint, 

 or, at least, be made to feel Her Majesty's se- 

 vere displeasure." In reply to these views 

 presented by Mr. Adams, on the 15th of April, 

 Earl Russell expressed his belief that the par- 

 ties engaged in these undertakings were not so 

 much interested in the cause of the insurgents 

 as in the profits to be expected by running the 

 blockade. Such attempts always would be 

 made in similar cases. For the rest, these ad- 

 venturers were compelled to take their own 

 risk. They had the dangers of capture to en- 

 counter, and the certainty of being deprived of 

 their rights of reclamation The Government 

 had no disposition to give them protection. 



On the 25th of April, Mr. Adams writes to 

 Mr. Seward : " Meantime outfits of vessels 

 with supplies to run the blockade go on with 

 increased vigor. Every account received of a 

 successful voyage stimulates to enlarged contri- 

 butions." 



In a letter, on the 30th, to Earl Russell, Mr. 

 Adams refers to the subject again, saying: 



I deem it my duty to represent to your lordship the 

 fact that the Government of the Unittd States finds it- 

 self involved in peculiar embarrassment in regard to its 

 policy toward tne vessels of Great Britain, from the 

 difficulty, to which I have repeatedly called your lord- 

 ship's attention, of distinguishing between the lawful 

 and the unlawful trade carried on upon the coast of the 

 United States in vessels bearing her Majesty's flag. It 

 comes presented to me in so many forms o'f evidence, 

 that I cannot avoid the painful conviction that a sys- 

 tematic plan, founded on the intent to annul her Ma- 

 jesty's proclamation by steady efforts to violate the 

 blockade through vessels either'actually British, or else 

 sailing under British colors, has been in operation in 

 this island for many months, and becomes more rather 

 than less extensive with the progress of time. 



To this letter Earl Russell emphatically re- 

 plied on the 6th of May, in these words : 



With regard to the " systematic plan " which you 

 say has been pursued by her Majestv's subjects " to 

 violate the blockade by steady efforts,'' there are some 

 reflections which I am surprised have not occurred to 

 you. 



The United States Government, on the allegation of 

 a rebellion pervading from nine to eleven States of the 

 Union, have now for more than twelve months en- 

 deavored to maintain a blockade of three thousand 

 miles of coast. This blockade, kept up irregularly, but 

 when enforced, enforced severelv, has seriously injured 

 the trade and manufactures of" the United Kingdom. 

 Thousands of persons are now obliged to resort to the 

 poor rate for subsistence, owing to this blockade. Yet 

 her Majesty's Government have never sought to take 

 advantage of the obvious imperfections of this block- 

 ade, in order to declare it ineffective. They have, to 

 the loss and detriment of the British nation, scrupu- 

 lously observed the duties of Great Britain toward a 

 friendly stats. But when her Majesty's Government 

 are asked to go beyond this, and to overstep the exist- 

 ing powers given them by municipal and international 

 law for the purpose of imposing arbitrary restrictions 

 on the trade of her Majesty's subjects, it is impossible 

 to listen to such suggestions. The ingenuity of per- 

 sons engaged in commerce will always, in some de- 

 gree, defeat attempts to starve or debar from comrner- 



