116 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 
of their duty on the part of the Court and of the 
attorney representing the Government. No appeal 
was taken by the Government. 
The Oreto then threw off all pretensions of. inno. 
cence; she openly completed her: equipment, arma. 
ment, and crew, partly at one place and partly: at an. 
other, under the eye of the colonial authorities; and 
proceeded to cruise and to make prizes as an avowed 
man-of-war by the name of //orida. Meanwhile, with 
the illegality of her operations in England, and also 
in the Bahama Islands, now notorious and admitted, 
she continued to come and go in British ports, and to 
obtain supplies there as her base of operations, without 
interference on the part of the British Government. 
On these facts, the three neutral Arbitrators and 
Mr. Adams convicted the British Government of want 
of due diligence, and of disregard otherwise of the 
Rules of the Treaty, notwithstanding that the Florida 
had entered and remained some time in the Confed- 
erate port of Mobile. 
Their several opinions were precise, definite, clear, 
and with positive conclusion, as to all the material 
points of the case, in favor of the United States. 
Sir Alexander Cockburn’s adverse opinion was a 
verbose special plea—which, while admitting all the 
material facts charged, and conceding the palpable 
fraud practiced by Miller & Sons and Thomas,—the 
original guilt of the vessel,—the absurdity of the ac 
tion of the Admiralty Court of Nassau,—the illegal 
equipments at Nassau and elsewhere in British ports, 
—and the continued use of British ports as a base of 
