No. 8.
[Extract]

Lord Lyons to Earl Russell.—(Received January 9, 1864.)

I have the honor to transmit to your lordship a copy of a despatch from Major General Doyle, acknowledging the receipt of the telegram in which I inquired, at Mr. Seward’s request, whether the Chesapeake could be made over at once to her owners if they applied for her, with the sanction of the United States government.

Major General Doyle has sent me copies of his despatch to the Duke of Newcastle of the 23d instant and its enclosures, giving a full account of the proceedings of the United States vice-consul and naval officers, as well as of those of the British authorities in Nova Scotia. The details of the events which grew out of the arrival of the Chesapeake in the waters of that province have been brought to my knowledge for the first time by these papers. I had not been without misgivings, but I confess that I was by no means prepared to learn that the violation of the territorial rights of Great Britain by the United States naval officers had been so flagrant and so serious, or the proceedings of those officers so violent and so unjustifiable, as they are now shown to have been. Mr. Seward was absent from Washington when the papers reached me, and he has not yet returned. He is, however, expected here to-morrow, and I shall, without a moment’s loss of time, confer with him upon the intelligence which I have received. I have thought it better to be silent on the subject during his absence. The prisoners taken by the United States officers on British territory have been given up by them, and the Chesapeake has been handed over to the Nova Scotian authorities. The question, therefore, which now remains is, the nature and extent of the reparation due from the government of the United States for the wrong committed by its officers; and Mr. Seward announced beforehand, in his note of the 18th of this month, that if any authority had been assumed by officers within the waters or on the soil of Nova Scotia, the government of the United States would at once express its profound regret, and be ready to make amends which would be entirely satisfactory. The case being in this position, I think that it is prudent, and that it is due to Mr. Seward, that I should discuss the matter with him in a friendly and confidential manner before taking any further steps with regard to it.

[For enclosure in No. 8, Major General Doyle to Lord Lyons, December 21, 1863, see Enclosure 1 in No. 6.]