PRIVATEERING. 



589 



which she mistook for a merchantman, and im- 

 mediately engaged, but was soon taken. Her 

 crc\v were placed in irons on board the United 

 steamer Minnesota, and she was sent to 

 Xe\v York, in charge of prize-master McCook. 

 Her appearance created great interest among the 

 people, on account of her being the first priva- 

 :iptured, and crowds of people flocked to 

 ..ittery, off which she lay, to see the little 

 craft. She was afterwards taken to the navy 

 yard. 



"When the Confederate authorities proposed 

 to issue letters of marque, but little attention 

 was paid to it, under the supposition that they 

 had neither the facilities to equip vessels, nor 

 the power to break the blockade. The appear- 

 ance of the vessels on the ocean soon dispelled 

 such illusions, and the powers of Europe were 

 called upon immediately to define their policy. 



The proclamation of President Lincoln, threat- 

 ening privateers with the punishment of piracy, 

 came up before the House of Lords, May 16. 

 The Earl of Derby said : 



" He apprehended that if one thing was 

 clearer than another, it was that privateering 

 was not piracy, and that no law could make that 

 piracy, as regarded the subjects of one nation, 

 which was not piracy by the law of nations. 

 Consequently the United States must not be al- 

 lowed to entertain this doctrine, and to call upon 

 Her Majesty's Government not to interfere. They 

 must not strain the law so as to visit with the 

 penalty of death, as for piracy, persons entitled to 

 Her Majesty's protection. That was a question 

 which could not be viewed with indifference, 

 but must be seriously considered by the Govern- 

 ment. It is quite right that the people of this 

 country should be warned of the peril ; but, on 

 the other hand, it was essential that the United 

 States should not be induced to deny the gen- 

 ral interpretation of international law, and to 

 inflict a punishment on privateering which was 

 never inflicted by that law. He knew it was 

 said that the United States treated the Confed- 

 erate States of the South as mere rebels, and 

 that as rebels these expeditions were liable to 

 all the penalties of high treason. That was not 

 the doctrine of this country, because we have 

 declared that they are entitled to all the rights 

 of belligerents. The Northern States could not 

 claim the rights of belligerents for themselves, 

 and, on the other hand, deal with other parties 

 not as belligerents, but as rebels. These were 

 the two points on which it was most desirable 

 that no misunderstanding should exist between 

 the Government of Her Majesty and the United 

 States that we would not recognize any thing 

 but a clear and effectual blockade actually en- 

 forced, and that we would not recognize the 

 doctrine that any declaration or law of the 

 United States against the Southern States 

 should have the power, as regarded others, of 

 constituting privateering piracy, and visiting it 

 with all the penalties attached to piracy." 



" Lord Brougham said it was clear that pri- 

 vateering was not piracy by the law of nations, 



however much it might be lamented that it was 

 not so." 



"Lord Chelmsford thought it might be as 

 well to bring his noble and learned friend's 

 opinion to a test. The Southern Confederation 

 was admitted by the Government of this coun- 

 try to be a belligerent power. Now, he wanted 

 to know whether his noble and learned friend 

 meant to say that if an Englishman was com- 

 missioned by the Southern Confederation it 

 being recognized as a belligerent power to fit 

 out a privateer against the Federal Government, 

 that that person, under those circumstances, 

 would be guilty of piracy. That he ought to 

 be, was the opinion of many judges. [The Lord 

 Chancellor: 'No, No.'] "Well, it was the 

 opinion of many. Now, undoubtedly those per- 

 sons would be answerable to their own Gov- 

 ernment for an infraction of the Foreign Enlist- 

 ment Act ; but it was clear, upon the question 

 of international law, that they would not be 

 liable to be treated as pirates. The warning 

 given by the proclamation was very useful and 

 most necessary ; and if persons would engage 

 in expeditions of this kind after the notice that 

 the Government would not interfere, they must 

 take the consequences they had drawn upon 

 themselves. If the Southern Confederacy had 

 not been recognized as a belligerent power, he 

 agreed with his noble and learned friend, that, 

 under those circumstances, if any Englishman 

 were to fit out a privateer for the purpose of 

 assisting the Southern States against the Nor- 

 thern States, he would be guilty of piracy." 



" The Lord Chancellor said his noble friend, 

 the President of the Council, had laid down the 

 law upon this subject in a perfectly correct 

 manner. There was no doubt that if an English- 

 man engaged in the service of the Southern 

 States, he violated the laws of the country and 

 rendered himself liable to punishment, and that 

 he had no right to trust to the protection of his 

 native country to shield him from the conse- 

 quences of his act. But though that individual 

 would be guilty of a breach of the law of his 

 own country, he could not be treated as a 

 pirate, and those who treated him as a pirate 

 would be guilty of murder." 



" Lord Kingsdown said, as to the state of the 

 law there could be no doubt a privateer acting 

 under a government was not a pirate. Xo 

 doubt the United States did not put the ex- 

 travagant proclamation they had issued upon 

 the ground that privateers were pirates, because 

 they themselves insisted upon the right of pri- 

 vateering. But they put it upon this ground, 

 that they were dealing with rebels, and that 

 they would hang them not, properly speaking, 

 as pirates, but as persons who were guilty of 

 high treason against the State to which they 

 were subject. Of course it was a matter for 

 their own consideration what was to be the 

 operation of that proclamation. He believed 

 that the enforcement of that doctrine would be 

 an act of barbarity which would produce an 

 outcry throughout the civilized world, but he 



