360 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



the end of 1863, consisted of 29 steamships, 9 

 sailing vessels, and 50 gunboats ; total, 88 ves- 

 sels, with 819 guns. 



The movement of commerce, during 1862, 

 was as follows : 



On December 23d, 1863, the Federal troops 

 of Germany marched into Holstein, in com- 

 pliance with a resolution of the Federal Diet 

 of Frankfort. On February 1st, 1864, the 

 troops of Prussia and Austria crossed the 

 Eider into Schleswig, when the war between 

 Denmark and the allied troops began, which 

 continued, with a temporary suspension, dur- 

 ing the session of the London conference, until 

 August 1st. On that day the preliminaries of 

 peace were agreed upon at Vienna, in conse- 

 quence of which the duchies of Schleswig, 

 Holstein, and Lauenburg were ceded by Den- 

 mark to Austria and Prussia. For the history 

 of the war, and the conclusion of peace, see 



SOHLESWIG-HOLSTEHT WAR. 



In the latter part of the year the Rigsday 

 was engaged in revising the Danish constitu- 

 tion. In its essential points the new Constitu- 

 tion is the same as the fundamental law of the 

 5th of June, 1849. It guarantees the same 

 liberty to the citizen, maintains the principle 

 of universal suffrage for the elections of the 

 Folkething, and as regards the Landsthing, 

 differs only in the manner of voting, the esti- 

 mates, and in the establishment of an interval 

 of two years between the ordinary meetings 

 of the Rigsday. 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND 

 FOREIGN RELATIONS. Several events tend- 

 ing to disturb the friendly relations of the 

 United States with other countries occurred 

 during 1864. Raiding parties were organized 

 in Canada by persons claiming to be in the ser- 

 vice of the Confederate States, for the purpose 

 of liberating the prisoners of war confined on 

 Johnson's Island, and depredating on the prop- 

 erty of citizens of the United States. One of 

 these parties, organized by one Bennet G. Bur- 

 ley, consisting of some twenty men, seized the 

 steamer Philo Parsons, running between the 

 city of Detroit and Sandusky, after she had 

 left Kelly's Island in the State of Ohio. They 

 then captured the Island Queen at Middle Bass 

 Island, Ohio, where they put ashore all the 

 passengers. "While here they forced "Walter 

 O. Ashley, the clerk of the Philo Parsons, at 

 the peril of his life, to deliver over his money. 

 Burley was arrested, charged with robbery, and 

 claimed under the Extradition treaty;' and sur- 

 rendered after a hearing before the Recorder of 

 the city of Toronto. 



On the 19th of October a party of men 

 from Canada, twenty to thirty in number, well 

 armed, entered the Tillage of St. Albans, in 



Vermont, robbed the bank in the place of 

 fifty thousand dollars, stole horses enough to 

 mount all the party, fired on a crowd of un- 

 armed citizens, wounding three men, one mor- 

 tally, and setting fire to one of the hotels. 

 The whole transaction occupied only three- 

 quarters of an hour, and the band imme- 

 diately started for Canada, -where thirteen of 

 the marauders were arrested and confined at 

 St. John's. As soon as the outrage was re- 

 ported to the Canadian authorities they did 

 every thing in their power to arrest the perpe- 

 trators ; and Mr. Seward, on the 21st of Octo- 

 ber, expressed to Mr. Burnlew, of the British Le- 

 gation at Washington, his " sincere satisfaction " 

 with their proceedings. Mr. Seward regarded 

 the outrage as a deliberate attempt to embroil 

 the governments of England and the United 

 States, and involve them in a border war. But 

 he rejoiced that the officers and agents on both 

 sides of the frontier had acted together in good 

 faith, and with due respect on each side for the 

 lawful rights and authority of the other. This, 

 he adds, " is in entire conformity with the wishes 

 of the United States." It should be added, that 

 a great proportion of the stolen money was 

 found on the persons of the raiders captured, and 

 was taken possession of by the Canadian police. 

 Lord Lyons, when the transaction occurred, was 

 at New York, but immediately returned to 

 Washington. The legal proceedings in the case 

 of the prisoners were not very rapidly despatch- 

 ed, and early in November Mr. Seward speaks 

 rather angrily of the requisitions for the offend- 

 ers whose crimes were committed on Lake Erie, 

 and for the burglars and murderers who invaded 

 Vermont remaining unanswered. In fact, the 

 latter were discharged by Judge Coursol on a 

 supposed technical defect in the instrument un- 

 der which they were tried, released from cus- 

 tody, and the money restored to them. They 

 were thus discharged on December 14th, and 

 again apprehended. The moment the intelli- 

 gence of their release reached New York, Gen. 

 Dix issued the following order, and the public 

 feeling on both sides the St. Lawrence became 

 unfortunately irritated : 



HEADQTTAETERB DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST, ( 

 NEW YOKE CITY, Dec. 14, 1S64. ) 



General Orders No. 97. 



Information having been received at these Head- 

 quarters that the rebel marauders who were guilty 

 of murder and robbery at St. Albans, have been dis- 

 charged from arrest, and that other enterprises are 

 actually in preparation in Canada, the Commanding 

 General deems it due to the people of the frontier 

 towns to adopt the most prompt and efficient meas- 

 ures for the security of their lives and property. 



All military commanders on the frontiers are, there- 

 fore, instructed, in case further acts of depredation 

 and murder are attempted, whether by marauders or 

 persons acting under commissions from the rebel 

 authorities at Richmond, to shoot down the perpe- 

 trators if possible while in the commission of their 

 crimes ; or if it be necessary with a view to their cap- 

 ture to cross the boundary between the United States 

 and Canada, said commanders are hereby directed to 

 pursue them wherever they may take refuge, and if 

 captured they are, under no circumstances, to bo 



