106 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
Nearly four months having elapsed without any definite information 
being furnished by the United States Government as to the grounds 
of the seizures, my predecessor instructed you, on the 8th January last, 
to express to Mr. Bayard the concern of Her Majesty’s Government at 
the delay, and to urge the immediate attention of the United States 
Government to the action of the American authorities in their treatment 
of these vessels and of their masters and crews. 
On the 3rd February Mr. Bayard informed you that the record of the 
judicial proceedings which he had called for was shortly expected to 
reach Washington, and that, without conclusion at that time of any 
questions which might be found to be involved in these cases of seiz- 
ures, orders had becn issued by the President’s direction for the discon- 
tinuance of all pending proceedings, the discharge of the vessels referred 
to, and the release of all persons under arrest in connection therewith. 
On the 4th April, under instructions from me, you inquired of Mr. 
Bayard, in view of the approaching fishing season in Behring’s Sea, 
whether the owners of British vessels might rely when not near land 
on being unmolested by the cruizers of the United States, and you 
again asked when the record of the judicial proceedings might be 
expected. Mr. Bayard informed you, in repty (12th April), that the 
papers referred to had reached him and were being examined; that 
there had been unavoidable delay in framing appropriate Regulations 
and issuing orders to the United States vessels to police the Alaskan 
waters; that the Revised Statutes relating to Alaska, Sections 1956 
and 1971, contain the Laws of the United States in relation to the 
matter; and that the Regulations were being considered, and he would 
inform you at the earliest day possible what had been decided, so that 
British and other vessels might govern themselves accordingly. 
In view of the statements made by Mr. Bayard in his note of the 3rd 
February, to which I have referred above, Her Majesty’s Government 
assumed that, pending a conclusion of the discussion between the two 
Governments on the general question involved, no further similar seiz- 
ures of British vessels would be made by order of the United States 
Government. They learn, however, from the contents of Mr. Bayard’s 
note of the 13th August last, inclosed in your despatch of the 15th 
August, that such was not the meaning which he intended should be 
attached to his communication of the 3rd February; and they deeply 
regret to find a proof of their misinterpretation of the intentions of the 
United States Government from an announcement recently received 
from the Commander in-chicf of Her Majesty’s naval forcesin the Pacific, 
that several more British vessels engaged in seal-hunting in Behring’s 
Sea have been seized when a long distance from land by an American 
Revenue vessel. : 
Her Majesty’s Government have carefully considered the transcript of 
record of the judicial proceedings in the United States District Court 
in the several cases of the schooners “Carolina,” “Onward,” and 
89 “Thornton,” which were communicated to you in July, and were 
transmitted to me in your despatch of the 12th of that month, 
and they cannot find in them any justification for the condemnation of 
those vessels. 
The libels of information allege that they were seized for killing fur- 
seal within the limits of Alaska Territory, and in the waters thereof, 
in violation of Section 1956 of the Revised Statutes of the United 
States; and the United States Naval Commander Abbey certainly 
affirmed that the vessels were seized within the waters of Alaska and 
the Territory of Alaska; but according to his own evidence they were 
