sirous that the duties attaching to a neutral power should be punctually performed throughout her Majesty's dominions; and they wish you to bring under the notice of your advisers the measures proposed in Canada, in order that you may consider with them the propriety of proposing similar measures for New Brunswick."

CAPTURE OF THE "ROANOKE." Correspondence respecting the capture of the United States' ship "Roanoke."

On the 22nd November, 1864, Mr. Cardwell received a despatch from Lieutenant-Governor Hamley, dated Bermuda, October 28th, stating that about the 6th October, a ship of war, said to belong to the Confederate States, was hovering about those coasts, that the Consul of the United States informed him that there was an intention to coal and man her by stealth from Bermuda, and that an enlistment for a warlike purpose had taken place in those islands. At midnight between the 8th and 9th October, the governor was informed that the Mathilda had returned to the port of St. George's, forcibly laden with the crew, passengers, baggage, &c., of the United States' mail steamer, Roanoke, which had been captured at sea by persons who had gone on board as passengers, but who afterwards turned out to be in the service of the Confederate States. On the receipt of this news, which was at first unsupported, the Governor-General went to St. George's, accompanied by the Attorney-General. From the account given by the Attorney-General, the circumstances of the case appeared to have been as follows:

"The United States' mail steamer Roanoke, with a crew of fifty men, all told, about thirtyfive passengers, mails, and a small cargo, left the Havana for New York at 5 P.M. on the 29th September, 1864. She had been out five hours and was about twelve miles from the coast of Cuba when, it being the chief officer's watch on deck, two or three passengers quitted a group near the pilot-house, went up to the chief officer and presented revolvers, demanded his surrender to the Confederate States, and threatened to shoot him if he resisted. He surrendered, was put in irons and conveyed into the saloon, and in about fifteen or twenty

minutes all the other ship's officers having in a similar manner been surprised in their berths, were brought handcuffed into the saloon. No resistance was offered, and no attempt was made to recapture the vessel. The ship's officers were paroled, and their irons were removed every day and replaced every night on all except the captain and purser. The original crew continued under persuasion or compulsion to work the vessel under Mr. Brain, the leader of the capturing party. Brain himself, Mr. Little, and Mr. Parr, were the chief captors, and they had gone on board as passengers while the Roanoke was under weigh in the harbour at the Havana, only one of them, Mr. Brain, being furnished with the ticket required from passengers by the regulations to obtain which a passport is necessary. They were received on board by the purser, to whom Brain handed his ticket, and who deposed that Brain had been a schoolfellow of his some eighteen years ago in Brooklyn, that from that time until he came on board he had never seen Brain, and that he recognized his features on seeing him again. The only person on board the Roanoke who showed any disposition to resist seems to have been the carpenter, and he was shot down and thrown overboard.

"Immediately after the capture Mr. Brain made for Bermuda with his prize, and arrived off the islands on the afternoon of the 4th instant, took a pilot, and after dark that evening came to anchor in Five-Fathom Hole. Brain then went ashore to St. George's, but returned to the Roanoke, before day-light, got under weigh, and proceeding to sea, hove-to out of sight from the land all that day. At daylight on Thursday the Roanoke again ran out to sea, and she hovered round the islands all that day, but stood in towards the land at night. She then fell in with a brig called the Village Girl, from which she received provisions and about twenty or thirty men, who had been engaged at St. George's a day or two previously for service on board a Confederate vessel. The thirteen men first arrested by the police were of this party.

"During the next day, Friday the 7th, the Roanoke hovered round these islands in company with the Village Girl, and endeavoured to take coal on board by means of the steamer's

boats.

She received ten or fifteen tons. At night she again ran in towards land, and by a preconcerted signal fell in with the Danish brigantine, Mathilda, Piper, master, which had just left St. George's ostensibly for Halifax, and to her were transferred the passengers, officers, and crew of the Roanoke, with their baggage. The Mathilda came to anchor in FiveFathom Hole, and sent these people ashore, and then proceeded to Halifax, having on board, it is supposed, the specie captured in the Roanoke, amounting to some 20,000 dollars. The agent or consignee of this vessel, the Mathilda, who also was the charterer for the voyage to Halifax, was the Mr. Johnson above-mentioned as being one of the persons who visited the Roanoke, in company with Major or Mr. Black. Johnson went from this to Halifax in the Mathilda.

"On Saturday the captors resolved to burn their prize, and that night they sent ashore the men who had been engaged at St. George's to work her, and on Sunday morning they set fire to the ship, and abandoning her, landed at St. George's. Their reasons for this are said to have been the impossibility of getting on board at sea sufficient coal to run her into Wilmington, and the intelligence they received here of the increased severity of the blockade. This brings us down to the time of their arrest. The men who landed during Saturday night were known to have been engaged at St. George's for service, and those who came on shore on Sunday morning were in general heavily armed, one man having three six-barrelled revolvers concealed about him, another carrying two similar weapons, and the rest one each. Some of these fire-arms were loaded and capped; but those carried by Mr. Brain's own party had, by his orders, been discharged before they reached the shore. All the people belonging to the Roanoke, except the carpenter, appear to have been well treated by their captors. The cigars, which formed a chief part of the cargo, were brought on shore in large quantities by the men who landed, and, not being duly entered, were seized by the revenue officers, some in the possession of Brain and his companions, others concealed on board a blockade-running steamer in harbour consigned to Mr. Black, and others again in obscure nooks and cellars, and in empty tents, in and about St. George's.

VOL. I.

"The proceedings before the magistrates lasted three days. On the second and third of these days I was represented, with your excellency's sanction, by Mr. Richard Darrell, a barrister here, it being impossible for me to attend personally, and the solicitor-general having been retained for the prisoners. On the third day of the inquiry, the warrant or commission, and the instructions on which Mr. Brain and his comrades relied as giving to their capture a warlike in lieu of a piratical character, were satisfactorily proved to be genuine; and all the prisoners were thereupon at once discharged. Before leaving the court, Mr. Brain expressed to Mr. Darrell his gratification at the respect which had been shown to the commission which he, Mr. Brain, carried. It is sufficiently plain, that under these circumstances, the charge of piracy could not be sustained. But it seems to be equally clear that a systematic violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act has been carried on in these islands, though as yet I have not obtained sufficient legal testimony to support the charge.

"Independently, however, of any breach of the letter of that Act, which might or might not be brought home to any individual, there were points in and connected with this enterprise to which it was necessary to call the special attention of her Majesty's Government. Mr. Brain's warrant as acting master in the Confederate States' navy, and his orders to capture the Roanoke, were dated at Richmond, where he seemed to have been then, the 26th May, 1864. Very soon after that he was in Bermuda, and there was strong reason to believe that it was there that he organised the plan which was consummated on the 29th September. The capture having been effected, it was to Bermuda that he repaired with his prize, and there he communicated personally with people on shore on the night of the 11th October, and for three succeeding days and nights he hovered on the coasts, sometimes under cover of darkness, availing himself of our anchorages, and receiving provisions and men from these islands by means of the Village Girl. It was to these shores he sent his prisoners, and when from adverse circumstances compelled to abandon his prize, it was there that he and his companions in arms sought an asylum for them19

selves, and a depository or hiding place for their booty. Lastly, if rumour might be credited, on being discharged from custody they celebrated their escape with wine and noisy conviviality, openly boasting to their guests that very soon their exploit would be repeated."

On the 1st December Earl Russell received from Lord Lyons an extract from the Daily Morning Chronicle of Washington, giving a summary of the proceedings before the law courts at Bermuda as regards the capture of the Roanoke, and the wording of the commission signed by the Confederate Secretary of the Navy. The proceedings were practically confined to taking the evidence of five witnesses, and on the verification of the commission the charge was withdrawn. And on the 17th December Earl Russell wrote to Lord Lyons that her Majesty's Government were of opinion that, subject to the question which seems to have existed as to the magistrate's jurisdiction, Captain Brain and the men under his orders were not improperly arrested upon the charge of piracy, but that the AttorneyGeneral of Bermuda properly withdrew the charge on the production of the commission to Captain Brain from the Government of the so-styled Confederate States. Her Majesty's Government also considered that these persons could not have been delivered up under the extradition treaty to the consul of the United States, even if his application had been made in proper form.

On the 21st December Earl Russell received from Mr. Adams a note, stating that he was instructed by his Government to enter a protest against the proceedings relating to the enlistment of men and the discharge of the parties concerned in the outrage. He was directed to specify most particularly the man Brain, already well known to the British authorities as having been engaged in a similar affair against the steamer Chesapeake in another portion of her Majesty's dominions, from the proper consequences of which he was suffered to escape. It would appear from the evidence that in the last case, as in the former one, he had accomplices among the inhabitants of the place.

To which Earl Russell answered on the 21st January that the documents enclosed in Mr.

Adams's despatch referred to two different complaints. The one complaint was that persons were enlisted at Bermuda with a view to make war on a state in amity with her Majesty. The other complaint was that certain passengers proceeding from Havana in the United States' vessel Roanoke, when five hours from Havana on their voyage, rose on the captain, made themselves masters of the vessel, destroyed her, and were afterwards permitted to land on the island of Bermuda. The answer to the first complaint was, that sufficient evidence to convict the persons accused was not produced, and consequently they could not be convicted. The answer to the second complaint was, that the persons arrested for a supposed piratical act produced a commission authorizing that act as an operation of war from the Government of the so-called Confederate States, which are acknowledged by her Majesty's Government to possess belligerent rights.

GUN-BOATS ON THE NORTH AMERICAN LAKES. Correspondence respecting Gun-boats on the North American Lakes.

On the 14th October, 1864, Earl Russell received a note from Mr. Burnley to the effect that telegraphic news had arrived of the seizure of two American steamers, the Philo-Parsons and Island Queen on Lake Erie by rebels from the Canadian shores, and that consequently the United States' Government had determined to increase the observing force on the American lakes. And on the 1st November Earl Russell received from Mr. Adams a note to the same effect, adding that in these proceedings there was no intention to abrogate the agreement long since made so beneficially to both countries in regard to mutual disarmament on these lakes; and further, that so soon as the period should arrive when there would be no longer a reasonable cause for apprehending any repetition of the lawless acts referred to, it would give his Government the greatest satisfaction to seize the earliest moment to dispense with these precautionary exceptional measures.

To this there was added a proclamation of the President of the United States for the prevention of illegal combinations against the dominions of Great Britain or Canada, dated 21st November, 1888; an Act of Congress of

the United States, for the prevention of American armed expeditions against certain foreign territories (in Canada), conterminous with those of the United States, dated 20th April, 1818, March 10th, 1888; and a proclamation of the President of the United States, for the prevention of unlawful interference of American citizens in the civil war in Canada, dated Washington, January 5th, 1838.

TITHE COMMISSION.

Report of the Tithe Commissioners to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department, for the Year 1864.

In 1864 the Commissioners received 7,070 agreements and confirmed 6,778. They made 5,648 drafts of compulsory awards and confirmed 5,450; and of these 1 was received and 1 confirmed during the year 1864. In 12,228 districts, as would be seen from the above statement, the tithes had been commuted by confirmed agreements or confirmed awards. In 414 of these districts the rentcharges had been disposed of by redemption or merger. The Commissioners received 11,787 apportionments and confirmed 11,782, of which 1 was received and 2 confirmed during the year 1864. They made 3,129 altered apportionments, and confirmed 2,697; and of these 180 have been received and 145 confirmed. They received 1,001 applications for the exchange of glebe lands, and confirmed 908 of such exchanges; and of these 30 applications were received and 38 exchanges confirmed during the past year. They received 673 applications for the redemption of rentcharge, and have completed 485 of such redemptions; and of these 121 were received and 77 completed during the year 1864. They received 9 applications to convert variable corn-rents payable under local Acts of Parliament into rentcharges to be henceforth payable in like manner as ordinary tithe rentcharges, and have completed awards in 5 of these cases. At the close of 1864 the commissioners had confirmed 14,679 distinct mergers of tithes or rentcharges.

STOCK CERTIFICATES TO BEARER.

Copies of Papers relating to the Practical Working of the Act 26 Vict. cap. 28, and to the Fees chargeable upon Proceedings." (Mr. Peel) 13 Feb., 1865.

On the 24th January, 1865, the Chancellor of the Exchequer wrote to the governor and deputy-governor of the Bank of England, asking them to give him an account showing the extent of operations which have taken place from month to month, or in other convenient successive periods, under the Act of 1863, for permitting the transfer of the public stocks from the registered form to that of certificates to bearer; and also any observations on the subject of this Act which their experience might suggest, especially upon the amount of the fees now charged under the authority of the Treasury, and the expediency of making any change in them.

To this the governor and deputy-governor of the Bank of England answered on the 2nd February, 1865, enclosing a statement of the working of the stock certificate account. And they further stated, 1st, that the knowledge of the existence of the stock certificate was not very widely spread; 2nd, that it was chiefly known to stockbrokers and bankers, who objected very much to the amount of the fee, and it was within the experience of the Bank that any inquiries concerning the Act, from the general public, had almost invariably been stopped by the mention of the charge of 58. per cent. The Bank therefore suggested that, if it be desirable to extend its operation, the Act permitting the exchanging of Government. stock for stock certificates to bearer might be made more generally known by advertisements in the newspapers; and with a view to modify the fees at present charged, that a notice, somewhat similar to the one now enclosed, might be extensively published.

From the account it appears that during the year 1864 there were issued 1095 Stock Certificates of Consols, amounting in all to 928,7501.; and 106 Stock Certificates of New 31. per Cent. Annuities of the amount of 100,850., and that there were exchanged 16 Stock Certificates of Consols of the amount of 10,100. On the receipt of this letter the Treasury made the following minute, dated February 4, 1865.

Consequently a Treasury minute was made, dated the 4th February, 1865, to the effect that the fees on stock certificates should be reduced as follows:

1. On stock certificates issued at the Bank
of England in exchange for 3 per
Cent. Consols, New 3 per Cents., or
Reduced 3 per Cents., a fee of 2s.
per cent.

2. On the re-inscription, as registered
stock, in the books of the Bank of
England, of nominal stock certifi-
cates and stock certificates to bearer,
a fee of 1s. for each certificate.
3. On the exchange of nominal stock cer-
tificates for certificates to bearer, a
fee of 1s. for each certificate.

MALT AND BARLEY.

Return of the number of bushels of malt charged with duty, and the amount of duty charged in the years 1863 and 1864 in England, Scotland, and Ireland respectively, and of the quantity of barley imported into the United Kingdom in the years 1863 and 1864 (Sir Fitzroy Kelly) February 17, 1865 (87). In England in the year ended December 31, 1863, there were 42,087,482 bushels of malt charged with duty amounting to 5,708,1147. 6s. 1d.; and in the year ended December 31, 1864, there were 43,975,530 bushels, on which there were charged 5,964,180l. 1s. 1ąd. duty. In Scotland in 1863, the number of bushels charged was 1,947,414, and the amount of duty only 262,8281., and in 1864, 2,017,242 bushels and 272,2921. 11s. 5d. In Ireland, in 1863, the number of bushels charged was 2,234,947, and the amount charged 302,7841. 16s. 84d., and in 1864, 2,551,350 bushels, 345,7891. 2s. 10d. Of barley there were imported in 1863, 2,067,388 bushels, and in 1864, 1,377,981 quarters.

RAILWAY AND CANAL re BILLS. Report from the Board of Trade upon the Railway and Canal Bills, and Bills relating to Harbours, Docks, and Tidal Waters of Session 1865.

The number of bills deposited for this session which relate to railways, canals, harbours,

docks, and tidal waters in the United Kingdom was 439, of which 409 relate to railways. Of those railway bills 348 authorized new works, which might be classed as follows:-By new companies England 162 bills, 1,980 miles; Scotland 14 bills, 392 miles; Ireland 15 bills, 306 miles. Total 191 bills, 2,678 miles. By existing companies: England 116 bills, 1,262 miles; Scotland 30 bills, 290 miles; Ireland 11 bills, 40 miles. Total 157 bills, 1,592 miles. The total length of new lines was therefore 4,270 miles, and there were in addition 76 miles of deviation lines.

METROPOLITAN RAILWAY SCHEMES.

Report of the House of Lords Committee, 1863.

The select committee of the House of Lords on Metropolitan railway communication of the session of 1863, in their third report, expressed their opinion that, in determining the regulations which it might be expedient to apply to railways within the Metropolis, it was desirable that the limits of the Metropolis, prescribed by the Royal Commission of 1846, should be extended in the manner described in the first paragraph of that report.

The committee, after explaining their views on the several points of the subject-matter referred to them, expressed (in paragraph 15) their opinion that, if the general views which they had explained should be deemed satisfactory by the House, some means should be taken to render future legislation conformable with the principles there laid down, and with this view they suggested that, in the next session, and also in any succeeding session if necessary, a select committee should be appointed before the second reading of the bills, for considering the different schemes for the construction of lines of railway within the Metropolitan railway district, which may then be before the House, and to report their opinion upon such schemes, with reference to the recommendations of this committee; such report to be made to the House before the second reading of the bills.

The committee added, that it would be desirable that the Board of Trade should make, soon after the commencement of each session