Mr. Seward to Lord Lyons.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 21st ultimo, respecting the case of the Scylla. The inquiries of her Majesty’s government in regard to that case are understood to have been made exclusively upon the complaint of C. W. Adams, the party who was in possession of and [Page 674] was using the Scylla when she was captured. Her Majesty’s government is understood to have assumed that Adams was a neutral subject, and the Scylla a British vessel on neutral account. After the representation was made by your lordship, Adams himself appeared here petitioning this government to concede for his own benefit the claim which he had so induced her Majesty’s government to make in his behalf. He brought all the political and personal American influence be could command to bear in his favor, as the real and only party interested in the claim. He admits that he is no British subject, and he is proved to be a disloyal American citizen, who, to attain fraudulently the advantage of a neutral character, had pretended to cast off his allegiance and become a citizen of one of the Hanse Towns. In this false character he was trading with the insurgents, of whom he was actually one. The ground upon which the British government is expected to patronize the claim is, that Adams represents to your lordship and to me that he had, long before the transaction, chartered the vessel of a British owner, named Edward Mesnard, and that the register of the vessel bears the name of that owner, who is said to be a British subject No proof of such character or such register has been produced, and if they exist, they are believed by this government to be mainly fraudulent. It is certain that neither that alleged owner or charterer, or any other British subject, appeared before either your government or mine to raise any claim of any nature whatever to the vessel or her cargo, or to make any complaint concerning her capture, or any other proceeding of this government in regard to her. As the case now stands, it furnishes the anomaly of this government being asked by her Majesty’s government for explanations of its dealings with the person and property of one of its own citizens in regard to transactions in which neither the British government nor any British subject has any interest; while this disloyal American citizen appears in person at this department, and urges that the suit of her Majesty’s government be granted for his own exclusive benefit and advantage. When I add that the Scylla was seized upon the ground that she was engaged by the American owner in aiding, insurgents against the government, I have completed what seems to me a full description of this extraordinary claim. I hardly need say that I am open to conviction if I have misunderstood the facts in the case.
I have the honor to be, with high consideration, sir, your obedient servant,
Right Hon. Lord Lyons.