340 



DESPKETZ, CESAR M. 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



anecdotes of Spanish celebrities, published one 

 in which it attributes the honor of saving the 

 life of his friend, Narvaez, in a mutiny, to Mr. 

 Derbishire, and, it is said, he was the first who 

 foretold the rise of Narvaez, and pointed out 

 the inefficiency of Espartero to the Melbourne 

 ministry, then active champions of the Quad- 

 ruple Alliance. He came to Canada as an at- 

 tache to the late Earl of Durham, Lord High 

 Commissioner, previous to the arrival of that 

 nobleman, and took an active part in the sup- 

 pression of the rebellion of 1839. On one oc- 

 casion he was the bearer of despatches from 

 the Canadian authorities to the late Lord Clyde, 

 then lieut.-governor of Nova Scotia, and that 

 in mid- whiter, when he had to travel by sleigh 

 and horse through a complete wilderness, tar- 

 rying neither night nor day, till his mission was 

 accomplished. After the departure of Lord 

 Durham, Mr. D. warmly espoused the cause of 

 Lord Sydenham. He was known as a Cana- 

 dian journalist of considerable literary reputa- 

 tion and ability. He was the first member 

 returned to the united parliament for "By- 

 town," now Ottawa city, the capital of Canada, 

 and by his vote condemned the claim of Lord 

 Metcalfe, the goveror-general, to make appoint- 

 ments without the knowledge of the cabinet. 

 He was one of the founders of the system of 

 government under which the public affairs of 

 Canada are conducted, known by the name 

 of "Responsible Government," and not even 

 the threat of the administration of the day to 

 deprive him of his office, as queen's printer, 

 could induce him to cooperate in pulling down 

 the edifice he had done so much to rear. He 

 was a most estimable man the patron of every 

 species of talent, his by no means inconsider- 

 able income was nobly spent. He died at 

 Quebec, March 27th, 1868. 



DESPRETZ, CESAB MANSUETE, a French sa- 

 vant and author, born at Lessines, in Hainault, 

 May 13th, 1789, died at Paris, March 15th, 

 1863. He was a member of the Institute of 

 France (section of physical sciences), and pro- 

 fessor of physics to the faculty of sciences. 

 He was one of the oldest and most active mem- 

 bers of the Philomathic Society, in whose ses- 

 sions he had taken part since 1820. His election 

 to the Academy of Sciences dates from 1841, 

 having been the successor of Savart. After 

 devoting himself for many years to chemistry, 

 and filling the office of chemical instructor at 

 the Polytechnic School, he turned his atten- 

 tion, ifter his 40th year, exclusively to physi- 

 cal science, and especially to the phenomena of 

 heat and its effect in changing the forms and 

 conditions of different bodies. These investi- 

 gations, though of great importance, were not 

 of a character to win popular applause or to 

 give him great notoriety. He succeeded, as he 

 believed, in making artificial diamonds of mi- 

 croscopic size, by subjecting very pure carbon 

 resulting from the calcination of sugar to -a 

 succession of discharges from the electro-mag- 

 netic battery of induction. His papers in the 



Annales de Chimie et de Physique, and in the 

 Comptes rendus de V 'Academic des Sciences were 

 very numerous. The following are the titles 

 of some of the most important: "Memoirs 

 upon the Cooling of certain Metals with a View 

 to the Determination of their specific Heat, and 

 their Power of Conduction ; " " Upon the elas- 

 tic Force of Vapors ; " " Upon the Density of 

 Vapors ; " " Upon the Heat disengaged in Com- 

 bustion ; " " Upon the latent Heat of different 

 Vapors ; " "Experimental Researches upon the 

 Causes of animal Heat ; " " Upon the Displace- 

 ment and the Oscillations of Zero in the Mer- 

 curial Thermometer ; " " Upon the Heat ab- 

 sorbed in the Fusion of Bodies ; " " Upon the 

 Limits of Perception of sharp and grave 

 Sounds ; " " Upon the Compressibility of elastic 

 Fluids," &c., &c. M. Despretz was the author of 

 a " Treatise on Chemistry," 2 vols. 8vo., and a 

 " Treatise on Elementary Physics," 1 vol. 8vo., 

 which passed through a number of editions. 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. The 

 most important subject of diplomatic corre- 

 spondence during 1863, arose between the 

 United States and Great Britain relative to 

 the construction at British shipyards of ves- 

 sels intended to make war upon the commerce 

 of the United States. During the previous 

 year the steamers Alabama and Florida had 

 been so built and delivered to Confederate 

 officers, and were subsequently armed, and 

 commenced the destruction of Federal vessels 

 on the ocean. As a general question : Were 

 such actions on the part of Great Britain con- 

 sistent with neutral rights and obligations? If 

 not, that country then was responsible to the 

 United States Government for the damage com- 

 mitted by these vessels while in the hands of 

 the Confederates. 



On the 20th of November, 1862, Mr. Adams, 

 the American minister at London, writes to 

 Earl Russell in reference to the 290 or Ala- 

 bama, stating the circumstances relative to her 

 construction and departure only in time to es- 

 cape seizure (see ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA, 1862), 

 and thus proceeds : 



It thus appears that her Majesty's Government had, 

 from the evidence which I have had the honor to sub- 

 mit to your lordship's consideration, and from other 

 inquiry, become so far convinced of the true nature of 

 the enterprise in agitation at Liverpool as to have de- 

 termined on detaining the vessel. So far as this actioa 

 went, it seems to have admitted the existence of a case 

 of violation of the law of neutrality in one of her 

 Majesty's ports, of which the Government of the 

 United States had a right to complain. The question 

 will then remain, how far the failure of the proceed- 

 ings, thus admitted to have been instituted by her 

 Majesty's Government to prevent the departure of this 

 vessel, affects the right of reclamation of the Govern- 

 ment of the United States for the grievous damape 

 done to the property of their citizens in permitting 

 the escape of this lawless pirate from its jurisdiction. 



And here it may not be without its use to call to 

 your lordship's recollection for a moment the fact thi.t 

 this question, like almost all others connected with tl e 

 duty of neutrals in time of war on the high seas, hi* 

 been much agitated in the discussions heretofore held 

 between the authorities of the two countries. During 

 the latter part of the last century it fell to the lot cf 



