Earl Russell to Mr. Burnley
Sir: Mr. Adams came yesterday, by appointment, to the Foreign Office.
I told Mr. Adams that the cabinet had taken into consideration the complaints which he had made from time to time, by order of his government, of the confederate hostilities in the lakes of Canada, of the raid at St. Albans, and of the vessels built or fitted out in British [Page 74] ports which were afterwards found converted into ships-of-war, cruising against the commerce of the United States. That the orders sent to the governor of Canada by her Majesty’s government, and the proceedings not only of the governor general, but of the legislature in Canada, would, I trusted, convince the United States government that everything had been done, or would be done, to prevent the carrying on of hostilities against the United States from Canadian territory or on Canadian waters.
With respect to the ships built, bought, or fitted out in the ports of the United Kingdom, the question was more difficult. We had tried prosecution, and had to a great extent prevented the equipment of warlike vessels in her Majesty’s ports and rivers, to be afterwards used as confederate vessels-of-war; but this success only rendered the confederate agents more cautious in carrying out their designs. Supposing a merchant ship to be bought and sent out ostensibly to Bombay, another vessel laden with cannon and warlike equipments, with a large ship’s company, should be nominally bound to Mexico, and that these two vessels should meet, say at the Cape Verde islands, and one of these vessels to be there converted into a confederate cruiser, with a confederate captain and a confederate crew: how was such a transaction to be prevented? Would not the plans of the confederate agents and of their friends in the country be kept so secret that no law existing, or to be made, could reach them?
I said that, struck by the difficulties, her Majesty’s government had determined to address the confederate commissioners at Paris; and I then proceeded to read to Mr. Adams the letter of which I enclose a copy. But I said there was always great difficulty in communicating with the confederate authorities at Richmond, and it had occurred to the* cabinet that, as the government at Washington must have opportunities of communicating with the confederates on questions which always arise in the course of protracted hostilities, I might fairly ask Mr. Seward, through the organ of Mr. Adams, to convey my letter safely to the confederate authorities.
Mr. Adams raised the difficulties that the confederates might doubt the authenticity of the letter; but, as I told him that the original had been sent the day before to Lord Cowley, to be delivered to Mr. Mason, Mr. Adams acknowledged that difficulty to be removed.
I said that either the confederates would accept our conditions, or they would refuse compliance, and in the last case it would be for her Majesty’s government to consider what was next to be done.
Mr. Adams said that in either case he thought advantage would accrue to the United States; but he feared that the facility with which the confederates had obtained ships for hostile purposes in a neutral country would furnish very dangerous precedents to belligerents in any future war.
I am, with great respect, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
J. Hume Burnley, &c., &c., &c.