Sir Frederick Bruce to Mr. Hunter
Sir: The correspondence which passed between the Secretary of State of the United States and Mr. Burnley, respecting the proclamation of the late President of the United States which imposes the penalty of confinement as prisoners of war, upon domiciled aliens and non-resident foreigners who have been or shall have been engaged in violating the blockade of the southern ports, has been taken into serious consideration by her Majesty’s government, and I am now instructed by her Majesty’s principal secretary of state for foreign affairs to inform the government of the United States that her Majesty’s government entirely concur in the principles laid down in the memorandum which was transmitted by Mr. Burnley to the Secretary of State of the United States in his note of the 16th ultimo.
It is not necessary, I am to state, to dispute the right of the United States [Page 133] government to order any individual foreigner or foreigners that they may consider to be dangerous or hostile to the United States government to leave their territory upon reasonable notice; but her Majesty’s government do not consider that the proclamation can be justified on that principle. It is addressed to no particular individual, but to “non-resident foreigners who have been or shall have been engaged in violating the blockade of the insurgent ports.” And it makes the continuance of any person who may afterwards be decided by martial law, to fall within this catagory, for twelve days in the United States a ground for his imprisonment, in military custody, until the end of the war.
Her Majesty’s government are of opinion that this cannot be called a reasonable warning to individuals to leave the united States territory, and that it is nothing less than the enactment of an ex post facto criminal law, and an evasion of the restraints of international law, under the color of territorial rights, and that it is obvious such an edict, if acted upon, may be the occasion of most arbitrary injustice towards the subjects of neutral states, to which her Majesty’s government cannot be expected to submit.
I have the honor to be, with high consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Hon. W. Hunter, &c., &c., &c.