Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I had a conference with Lord Russell on Saturday last. Not deeming it advisable to spend much time in going over the ground already so often covered, I contented myself with reading to him the whole of your despatches, No. 859, of the 2d, and No. 871, of the 11th of March.
His lordship did not appear to me to have any fresh reply to make to the reasoning. He contented himself with disclaiming the inference in your papers that the government had assumed the position that it could do no more. The object it had had in view all the time had been to know what was the extent of its powers under the enlistment law, so that it might shape its subsequent [Page 569] measures accordingly. This it had attempted to gain by means of the prosecution of the Alexandra case. He did not attempt to disguise his disappointment at the issue of that experiment. He was not himself a lawyer, and therefore did not pretend to decide upon the correctness of the proceeding. All he could say was that the result seemed to him extraordinary. He caught at an expression used in one of your despatches, “of the uncertainty and caprice incident everywhere to the civil administration of justice,” and repeated it as if not a little impressed with its force. He did not betray any knowledge of what the final decision on the appeal in the House of Lords was to be, although from my present point of view, since the decision has been declared, I can see that he foresaw it.
He then turned to the case of Lairds’ iron-clads, and said that the government meant now to go on with that. A commission had gone out to get the evidence of the viceroy of Egypt in connexion with the claim of Mr. Bravay. I referred to the publication by the Lairds of their correspondence with the government on that subject, and commented with some severity on the manner in which they persevered in the pretence of that ownership. I mentioned the fact that Bravay’s trumped-up claims on the present viceroy, on his averment of a verbal contract with his predecessor, of which there was no evidence adducible aliunde, had actually been released by the payment of a considerable sum of money at the very time when he was playing the part of owner of these vessels for the purpose of fulfilling that contract.
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With regard to the case of the Pampero, at Glasgow, he said that a proposition had been made by the owners to put an end to it. They now admitted that it had been built for the rebels; but they affirmed that it was no longer theirs, and that they were ready to give bonds that it would not, if released, go into their hands. His lordship did not say that the government had assented to this. But I infer from a notice in the Edinburgh Statesman, a copy of which I transmit, that the arrangement has probably been carried out.
The conference ended thus, pretty much as it began. I am more and more convinced of the inutility of pressing these or any arguments further upon this ministry.
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Meanwhile I should earnestly hope that our efforts to bring the deplorable struggle in America to a successful issue may be crowned with success, otherwise it is much to be apprehended that the causes of offence may be accumulated to such an extent on this side as to render an escape from a conflict almost impossible. Nothing will keep down the malevolent spirit * * * but the conviction that there is no hope left of effecting a permanent disruption of the United States.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.