626 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



DECREE OF THE QUEEN OF SPAIN. 



Taking into consideration the relations which exist 

 between Spain and the United States of America, and 

 the desirability that the reciprocal sentiments of good 

 intelligence should not be changed by reason of the 

 grave events which have taken place in that republic, 

 I have resolved to maintain the most strict neutrality 

 in the contest begun between the Federal States of the 

 Union and the States confederated at the South ; and 

 in order to avoid the damage which might come to my 

 subjects and to navigation, and to commerce, from the 

 want of clear provisions to which to adjust their con- 

 duct in consonance with my council of ministers, I do 

 decree the following : 



ART. 1. It is forbidden in all the ports of the mon- 

 archy to arm, provide, or equip any privateer vessel, 

 whatever may be the flag she displays. 



ART. 2. It is forbidden in like manner to the owners, 

 masters, or captains of merchant vessels to accept let- 

 ters of marque, or contribute in any way whatsoever 

 to the armament or equipment of vessels of war or 

 privateers. 



ART. 3. It is forbidden to vessels of war or priva- 

 teers with their prizes, to enter or to remain for more 

 than twenty-four hours in the ports of the monarchy, 

 except in case of stress of weather. Whenever this 

 last shall occur, the authorities will keep watch over 

 the vessel and oblige her to get out to sea the soonest 

 possible without permitting her to take in any stores 

 except the purely necessary for the moment, but in no 

 case arms nor supplies for war. 



ART. 4. Articles proceeding from prizes shall not be 

 sold in the ports of the monarchy. 



ART. 5. The transportation under the Spanish flag 

 of all articles of commerce is guaranteed, except when 

 they are directed to blockaded ports. The transporta- 

 tion of effects of war is forbidden, as well as the car- 

 rying of papers or communications for belligerents. 

 Transgressors shall be responsible for their acts, and 

 shall have no right to the protection of my Government. 



ART. 6. It is forbidden to all Spaniards to enlist in 

 the belligerent armies, or take service on board of 

 vessels of war or privateers. 



ART. 7. My subjects will abstain from every act 

 which, in violation of the laws of the kingdom, can be 

 considered as.contrary to neutrality. 



ART. 8. Those who violate the foregoing provisions 

 shall have no right to the protection of my Govern- 

 ment ; shall suffer the consequences of the measures 

 which the belligerents may dictate, and shall be pun- 

 ished according to the laws of Spain. 

 _ Palace, on the seventeenth of June, one thousand 

 eight hundred and sixty-one. 



SIGNED WITH THE ROYAL HAND. 



The Minister of State, 



SATURXIXO CARDERON CoLLAXTEa. 



DECREE OF THE KING OF PORTUGAL. 



MINISTRY OP FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ) 

 PALACE OP NECESSIDADES, July 29, 1S61. f 



It being proper, in view of the circumstances at 

 present existing in regard to the United States of 

 America, to carry into effect the principles established 

 in the declaration of Paris of April 16, 1856, made by 

 the representatives of the powers that signed the treaty 

 of peace of the 30th of March of that year, to which 

 declaration my Government acceded, and likewise, for 

 the same reason, to adopt other measures which I 

 deem opportune, I have been pleased, after hearing 

 the Council of State, to decree as follows : 



ARTICLE 1. In all the ports and waters of this king- 

 dom, as well on the continent and in the adjacent 

 islands as in the ultramarine provinces, Portuguese 

 subjects and foreigners are prohibited from fitting out 

 vessels destined for privateering. 



ART. 2. In the same ports and waters referred to in 

 the preceding article is, in like manner, prohibited the 

 entrance of privateers and of the prizes made by priva- 

 teers, or by armed vessels. 



The cases of overruling necessity, (forya maior,) 

 in which, according to the law of nations, hospitality 

 is indispensable, are excepted from this regulation, 

 without permission, however, being allowed, in any 

 manner, for the sale of any objects proceeding from 

 prizes. 



The Ministers and Secretaries of State in all the 

 departments will thus understand, and cause it to ba 

 executed. KING. 



MARQUEZ DE LOULE. 



ALBERTO ANTONIO DE MORAES CARVALHO. 



VlSCONDE DE SA DA BANDEIBA. 



CARLOS BENTO DA SILVA. 



TIIIAGO AUGUSTO VELLOSO DE HOBTA. 



ANTONIO JOSE D'AVILA. 



VIEWS OF THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA. 



ST. PETERSBURG, July 10, 1861. 



SIR : From the beginning of the conflict which di- 

 vides the United States of America, you have been 

 desired to make known to the Federal Government the 

 deep interest with which our august master was ob- 

 serving the development of a crisis which puts in ques- 

 tion the prosperity and even the existence of the Union. 



The Emperor profoundly regrets to see that the hope 

 of a peaceful solution is not realized, and that American 

 citizens, already in arms against each other, are ready 

 to let loose upon their country the most formidable 

 of the scourges of political society a civil war. 



For the more than eighty years that it has existed, 

 the American Union owes its independence, its tower- 

 ing rise, and its progress, to the concord of its mem- 

 bers, consecrated, under the auspices of its illustrious 

 founder, by institutions which have been able to recon- 

 cile union with liberty. This union has been fruitful. 

 It has exhibited to the world the spectacle of a pros- 

 perity without example in the annals of history. 



It would be deplorable that, after so conclusive an 

 experience, the United States should be hurried into a 

 breach of the solemn compact which, up to this time, 

 has made their power. 



In spite of the diversity of their constitutions and 

 of their interests, and perhaps, even, because of this 

 diversity, Providence seems to urge them to draw 

 closer the traditional bond which is the basis and the 

 very condition of their political existence. In any 

 event, the sacrifices which they might impose upon 

 themselves to maintain it are beyond comparison 

 with those which dissolution would bring after it. 

 United, they perfect themselves ; isolated, they are 

 paralyzed. 



The struggle which unhappily has just arisen, can 

 neither be indefinitely prolonged nor lead to the total 

 destruction of one of the parties. Sooner or later it 

 will be necessary to come to some settlement, whatso- 

 ever it may be, which may cause the divergent inter- 

 ests now actually in conflict to coexist. 



The American nation would then give a proof of 

 high political wisdom in seeking in common such a 

 settlement before a useless effusion of blood, a barren 

 squandering of strength and of public riches, and acts 

 of violence and reciprocal reprisals shall have come to 

 deepen an abyss between the two parties to the con- 

 federation, to end definitively in their mutual exhaus- 

 tion, and in the ruin, perhaps irreparable, of their 

 commercial and political power. 



Our august master cannot resign himself to admit 

 such deplorable anticipations. His Imperial Majesty 

 still places his confidence in that practical good sense 

 of the citizens of the Union who appreciate so judi- 

 ciously their true interests. His Majesty is happy to 

 believe that the members of the Federal Government, 

 and the influential men of the two parties, will seize all 

 occasions, and will unite all their efforts to calm the 

 effervescence of the passions. There are no interests 

 so divergent that it may not be possible to reconcile 

 them by laboring to that end with zeal and persever- 

 ance in a spirit of justice and moderation. 



If, within the limits of your friendly relations, your 

 language and your councils may contribute to this 



