410 



GEE AT BRITAIN. 



tween the Alabama and Kearsarge took place, 

 resulting in the sinking of the former (see 

 NATAL OPERATIONS), and the commander of 

 the Alabama, Semmes, and a part of Ms crew, 

 were rescued from capture by an English 

 yacht, the Deerhound. The gunners on the 

 Alabama were Englishmen, and Semmes and 

 his officers were received with sympathy and 

 honored with ovations in England. A strong 

 pressure was brought to bear upon the English 

 Government at this time to induce it to recog- 

 nize the "so-called Southern Confederacy," and 

 a great outcry was made without cause, as it af- 

 terward appeared, in relation to the great in- 

 crease of emigration to the United States, it 

 being alleged that men were fraudulently enlist- 

 ed in England and Ireland for the United States 

 Army. Mr. Lindsay gave notice of a motion in 

 favor of interference in Parliament, and it was 

 only postponed at the special request of the 

 Cabinet. A deputation from a body, calling 

 itself a " Society for obtaining a cessation of 

 hostilities," had an audience with Lord Palmer- 

 ston, and Mr. Mason, the Confederate Com- 

 missioner, also had an interview with him. Earl 

 Russell, under a misapprehension of the facts, 

 allowed himself to be betrayed into some harsh 

 language in relation to the emigration, but the 

 Cabinet as a whole maintained its position and 

 dignity, in spite of the pressure. At the pro- 

 roguing of Parliament on the 29th of July, the 

 royal message held the following language rela- 

 tive to the war. " Her Majesty deeply laments 

 that the civil war in North America has not 

 been brought to a close. Her Majesty will con- 

 tinue to observe a strict neutrality between the 

 belligerents, and would rejoice at a friendly 

 reconciliation between the contending parties." 

 During the autumn, the sympathizers with the 

 Confederates opened a bazaar at Liverpool, in 

 imitation of the sanitary fairs in the United 

 States, to raise money for the purchase of food 

 and clothing for Confederate prisoners in du- 

 rance in the United States, who, it was falsely 

 alleged were suffering for want of both. About 

 seventeen thousand pounds sterling was raised, 

 and Lord Wharncliffe applied to Mr. Adams for 

 permission for an accredited agent to visit the 

 military prisons within the Northern States, 

 and distribute aid to their inmates. Mr. Adams 

 replied, vindicating the Government of the 

 United States against any imputation of hav- 

 ing treated with unnecessary or vindictive 

 severity any of the misguided individual par- 

 ties in this deplorable rebellion, who had 

 fallen into its hands in the regular course of 

 the war; and after expressing a desire that 

 their mental ailments, as well as their bodily 

 sufferings might be ministered to, and thereby 

 an end be put to a struggle which otherwise 

 is too likely to be only procrastinated by their 

 English sympathizers, informed him that he had 

 referred his letter to Mr. Seward. The reply 

 of the Secretary of State was as follows : 



DEPAETMENT or STATE, WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 1SC4. 

 DIE: I have received your despatch of 18th No- 



vember, together with the papers theie/n mentioned, 

 viz. : Copy of a letter which was addressed to you on 

 the 12th of November last by Lord Wharncliffe, and 

 copy of your answer to that letter. You will now 

 inform Lord Wharncliffe that permission for an agent 

 of the Committee described by him to visit insur- 



ents detained in the military prisons of the United 

 tates and distribute among them 17,000 of British 

 gold, is disallowed. Here it is expected that your 

 correspondence with Lord Wharncliife will end. 



That correspondence will necessarily become pub- 

 lic. On reading it the American public will be well 

 aware that while the United States have ample means 

 for the support of prisoners as well as for every other 

 exigency of the war in which they are engaged, the 

 insurgents who have blindly rushed into that condi- 

 tion are suffering no privations that appeal for re- 

 lief to charity either at home or abroad. The Amer- 

 ican people will be likely to reflect that the sum thus 

 insidiously tendered in the name of humanity, con- 

 stitutes no large portion of the profits which its con- 

 tributors may be justly supposed to have derived 

 from the insurgents by exchanging with them arms 

 and munitions of war for the coveted productions of 

 immoral and enervating slave labor. Nor will any 

 portion of the American people be disposed to re- 

 gard the sum thus ostentatiously offered for the re- 

 lief of captured insurgents as too generous an equiv- 

 alent for the devastation and desolation which a civil 

 war, promoted and protracted by British subjects, 

 have spread throughout the States which beftue 

 were eminently prosperous and happy. 



Finally, in view of this last officious intervention 

 in our affairs, the American people can hardly fail to 

 recall the warning of the Father of our country di- 

 rected against two great and intimately connected 

 public dangers, namely, sectional faction and foreign 

 intrigue. I do not think the insurgents have be- 

 come debased, although they have sadly wandered 

 from the ways of loyalty and patriotism. I think in 

 common with all our countrymen, they will rejoice 

 in being saved by the considerate and loyal govern- 

 ment from the fate which Lord Wharncliffe and his 

 associates, in their zeal for the overthrow of the 

 United States, have prepared for the victims of this 

 unnatural and hopeless rebellion. 



I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



W. H. SEWAKD. 



In matters not connected with her relations 

 to this country there have been some incidents 

 of importance during the year. Her Royal 

 Highness the Princess Alexandra gave birth, on 

 the 8th of January, to a son, who was baptized 

 on the 10th of March, by the name of Albert 

 Victor Christian Edward. In the war between 

 Denmark and Germany for the possession of 

 Schleswig Holstein, Great Britain maintained a 

 strict neutrality, as she was compelled to do 

 from the relations of the reigning queen and 

 the heir apparent to both belligerents. A con- 

 ference on Danish affairs assembled in London 

 on the 25th of April, which was attended by 

 the representatives of France, Russia, Austria, 

 Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, and the German 

 confederation ; but its proposals were rejected, 

 on the 25th of June, by both parties. (See LON- 

 DON CONFERENCE). 



On the llth of March, the town of Sheffield, 

 England, and its vicinity, suffered greatly by 

 the bursting of the Bradfield Reservoir. The 

 water rolled in a cataract upon the sleeping 

 villagers in the valley below, into and through 

 Sheffield itself, down to the Don, at Doncaster. 

 "Within the space of two or three hours, two 



