174 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., 



Your mission, Commodore, is one of peace; but while you do 

 nothing to provoke war, you will do nothing to jeopard our rights 

 or compromit our honor. 



You will continue actively engaged in the duties confided to you 

 until the middle of September next, unless the situation of public 

 interests should, in your judgment, render an earlier return necessary, 

 in which event you will immediately thereafter repair to the city 

 of Washington and report to the department. 



Wishing you a safe and prosperous cruise, I am, very respectfully, 

 your obedient servant, 



J. C. DOBBIN. 

 Com. W. B. SHUBRICK, 



Appointed to command U. S. squadron for the 



Eastern coast of the United States, Washington. 



Mr. Dobbin to Commodore Shubrick. 



NAVY DEPARTMENT, 

 Washington, July 23, 1853. 



SIR : The department acknowledges receipt of your communications 

 numbered 2 and 3, dated Portsmouth, N. H., July 20, 1853. 



You state that Mr. Crampton, the British minister, informs you 

 that " the colonial government had placed under the orders of Ad- 

 miral Seymour all the colonial cruisers, which vessels had been com- 

 missioned by him, and have thus become vessels of war in the Queen's 

 service." 



You mention " the circumstance as showing the determination of 

 the Admiral to carry out the British interpretation of the treaty to 

 the fullest extent, and in the belief that the department may deem 

 it proper, in view of this circumstance, to add somewhat to the in- 

 structions already given to you touching the extent to which the 

 views of our government on the same point are to be pressed." 



Until you have had the interview with Admiral Seymour, as sug- 

 gested in your first communication from this department, I have 

 nothing to add to the instructions therein given. Since your de- 

 parture from Washington, intelligence has reached the department, 

 informally it is true, well calculated to make the impression that Ad- 

 miral Seymour will not resort to violence, even if our fishing vessels 

 do venture to fish in the bays, unless it is indulged in with a display 

 of arms, and in a manner and spirit of defiance calculated to irritate 

 and offend, which I do not allow myself to suppose will occur. 



Before separating from the officers in command of the several ves- 

 sels of the squadron under your command, you will, of course, inform 

 them thoroughly of the views of the government; of the desire to 

 avoid collision, by warning our fishermen of the importance of a due 

 observance of the treaty, and assuring them that their government 

 will afford them the protection to which they are entitled. 



The Cyane has been ordered to join you, but the department has 

 not yet received any reply to the order. 



