Lord Lyons to Earl Russell.—(Received December 26.)
My Lord: On the 11th instant, a few minutes after I had sent off my despatch to your lordship of that day, Mr. Seward called upon me and showed me a telegram which he had just received from the United States vice-consul at Halifax. It had been not very correctly transmitted, but the substance of it appeared to be that the Chesapeake had been taken, by the passengers who seized her, into the port of Shelburne, in Nova Scotia, and that the crown lawyers at Halifax were deliberating on the case. Mr. Seward begged me to address a telegraphic despatch to the governor of Nova Scotia to request, in the [Page 462] name of this government, that all proper measures might be taken to prevent the escape of the vessel. The result of my conversation with Mr. Seward was, that I despatched a telegram to General Doyle, the administrator of the government of Nova Scotia, stating that the Secretary of State of the United States requested me to beg him to take all measures compatible with international and municipal law, in order that justice might be done in the case. General Doyle having replied that the Chesapeake had not entered any port within his jurisdiction, I despatched, at Mr. Seward’s request, a telegram to the governor of New Brunswick, to the same effect as that which I had sent to Nova Scotia.
I have the honor to enclose copies of correspondence which I have had on the subject.
I have, &c.,