excite, or did excite, in the minds of persons on board of her, any sus picion that she was intended for a different purpose.

Her crew was composed of men who had shipped on board of her in the ordinary way, in the port of London, for a trading voyage. They were hired and signed articles for a voyage from London to Bombay, (calling at any ports or places on the passage,) and any other ports or places in India, China, or Japan, or the Pacific, Atlantic, or Indian Oceans, trading to and from, as legal freights might offer, until the return of the ship to a final port of discharge in the United Kingdom or continent of Europe; the voyage not to exceed two years.

Before or at the time of her arrival at the Madeira Islands, she was sold by her owner to the government of the Confederate States. Either on the high seas or in Portuguese waters she was transferred to an officer commissioned by the government of the Confederate States, who then took possession and control of her; and the master, officers, and crew who had come out in her from England (three or four men only excepted) left her at that time, and returned to England. The three or four men who remained on board the ship were one of the engineers, a common sailor, and one or two firemen. They are stated to have enlisted when under the influence of liquor.

[161] *The commander who had taken possession of the ship, and his officers, (who, like him, were Americans,) employed the strongest inducements in order to persuade the ship's crew to enlist, by the offer of large bounties, by the promise of high wages and prize-money, by exhibiting money to them, and by lavish supplies of liquor. These induce ments, however, were used in vain, except in the case of the three or four men above mentioned.

.

The ship was also joined by a few men who had come in the steamer Laurel. At the time when she commenced cruising, her whole crew, exclusive of officers, was from seventeen to nineteen men. The number of men who would commonly be shipped to work a vessel of her size as a merchant ship would be from forty to fifty, which was the number that actually went out in her. As a ship of war she would require a larger number than that. It appears that before she arrived at the port of Melbourne, her crew had been increased to a complement of from seventy to eighty men, exclusive of officers, (who were about twenty,) by the addition of men who joined her from captured American vessels.

The commander and officers of the Shenandoah (excepting, as some deponents stated, one of the lieutenants, who had taken a passage in her from London as an ordinary passenger, concealing his purpose and official character) came on board of her, for the first time, after she had arrived near to a detached group of islands belonging to the Madeiras, and called the Desertas. They came out as passengers in the Laurel steamer, which cleared on the 8th October, from Liverpool for a voyage to Matamoras via Havana and Nassau. They took the control of the ship, and, by their orders, her guns (other than the two small 12-pounders above mentioned) and all her ammunition were put on board of her from the Laurel. These acts were done either within Portuguese waters or on the high seas. The vessel afterward hoisted the confederate flag and commenced cruising. Her commander was a lieutenant commander in the naval service of the Confederate States, appointed by the naval department of that government to command the Shenandoah.

Of the vessels captured by the Shenandoah a considerable number were captured before she arrived at a British colony.

The earliest intelligence respecting the Shenandoah which reached Her Majesty's government was received from Her Britannic Majesty's

consul at Teneriffe. Up to that time (that is, until the 12th November, 1864, five weeks after she left London) no representation respecting her had been made by Mr. Adams, and no information about her had been conveyed to or come into the possession of Her Majesty's government. Immediately on the receipt of the British consul's report, and before any representation had been made or information furnished by the minister of the United States, Her Majesty's government took the opinion of its legal advisers on the question whether legal proceedings could be instituted against Corbett, the master of the ship, for his share in the transaction, and the master was, in fact, indicted and brought to trial, but was acquitted by the jury, the evidence as to his acts being doubtful and conflicting.

The commander of the Shenandoah on arriving in the port of Melbourne addressed to the governor an application in writing, stating that she was a steamer belonging to the Confederate States, and asking for permission to make necessary repairs and obtain necessary supplies of coal. Permission was granted to him to remain in the waters of the colony a sufficient time for receiving the provisions and things necessary for the subsistence of the ship's crew, and for effecting needful repairs. The commissioner of trade and customs for the colony was at the same time instructed to take every precaution in his power against the possibility that her commander might attempt to augment her armament in any degree, or to render the armament which she possessed more effective. The officers of the government were directed to attend to this, and to furnish daily reports of the progress made with the repairs and provisioning of the ship. Competent persons were appointed to ascertain whether repairs were really necessary and to report to the governor on the subject, and these persons reported that she was not in a fit state to go to sea, and that repairs were necessary, for which the vessel would have to be placed on a slip. The slip, though the property of the colonial government, was not under its control, but under that of a private person to whom it had been leased by the government.

Permission to land from the vessel stores which she did not require for use was asked, but refused by the governor, on the advice of his law-officers.

The commander of the ship was required to fix the earliest day on which she would be ready to sail, and to take his departure on the day so fixed; and she departed accordingly.

Three persons discovered to have gone on board the ship for the purpose of joining her crew were prosecuted and brought to trial. Two were punished, the third released without punishment by reason [162] of his youth. A fourth was discharged, being found to be an

American. These were the only persons who could be ascertained, before she left Melbourne, to have joined or attempted to join her; and her commander gave his word in writing, as commander of the ship, that there were no persons on board of her except those whose names were on the shipping articles; that no one had been enlisted in the service of the Confederate States since his arrival, and that he bad in no way violated the neutrality of the port.

It was not the duty of the colonial government to seize or forcibly search the Shenandoah while in the waters of the colony, nor could it have done so without transgressing the rules of neutrality and the settled practice of nations.

No personal communication took place between the governor and the commander of the ship while she remained in the waters of the colony. The discovery having afterward been made that, notwithstanding

the vigilance exercised by the officers of the colonial government, persons had been secretly put on board the ship during the night preceding her departure, notice of this was sent by the governor to the governors of the other Australian colonies and of New Zealand.

Her Britannic Majesty having subsequently received reports, which appeared to be worthy of credit, to the effect that the Shenandoah was continuing to capture and destroy merchant-vessels after her commander had been informed of the cessation of the civil war, gave directions that she should be seized in any port of Her Majesty's colonial possessions, or on the high seas, and should be delivered over to officers of the United States. But the truth of these reports was positively denied by her commander on his arrival at Liverpool, and Her Majesty's government has no reason to believe that the denial was untrue.

On arriving at Liverpool the vessel was secured by the officers of the government, and was handed over to the Government of the United States, on the express request of Mr. Adams.

The crew were detained on board for some days by the officers of the government. No evidence being within that time given, offered, or discovered against any of them, they were at the end of it suffered to land and disperse. More than six months had at this time elapsed since the end of the civil war.

The Shenandoah was at sea during more than twelve months, from the time at which her cruise began. She was never, so far as Her Majesty's government is aware, encountered or chased by a United States ship of war, and no endeavor to intercept or capture her appears to have been made by the Government of the United States.

Her Britannic Majesty's government denies that, in respect of the Shenandoah, there was on its part any failure of international duty for which reparation is due from Great Britain to the United States.

[163]

*PART IX.

RECAPITULATION OF FACTS PREVIOUSLY STATED.

The statements of fact which have been placed before the arbitrators may be recapitulated as follows:

BART IX. - Recapitulation.

Of the four vessels in respect of which alone the United States have, up to this time, made claims against Great Britain, two-the Georgia and Shenandoah-were never, in any manner or degree, within the dominions of Her Majesty, fitted out, armed, or equipped for war, or specially adapted to warlike use. They were constructed and fitted in a manner suitable to merchant-ships. One of them, the Shenandoah, was not only built for a merchant-ship, but had been owned and used as such before she was purchased by the government of the Confederate States; and her condition and equipment when she departed from Great Britain, and when she came into the possession of the government of the Confederate States, were, so far as appears, the same in all material respects as they had been when she was owned and employed as a trading vessel. This vessel, according to the evidence which has been brought to the knowledge of Her Majesty's government, was sold and transferred to the government of the Confederate States after she had departed from Her Majesty's dominions.

No information whatever respecting these two vessels respectively was conveyed to Her Britannic Majesty's government by the minister or consular officers of the United States, or came to the knowledge of that Government, until they had respectively departed from Her Majesty's dominions. Her Britannic Majesty's government had no ground to believe or suspect that they or either of them were or was intended to be delivered to the government of the Confederate States or its officers, or employed in cruising or carrying on war against the United States. If the minister or consuls of the United States had had any such grounds of belief or suspicion, they were not communicated to the government of Her Britannic Majesty.

The other two vessels, the Alabama and Florida, though suitable by their construction for vessels of war, were not armed for war when they respectively departed from the waters of the United Kingdom. They had then no armament whatever, and they did not receive any until after they had arrived at places very remote from Great Britain, and out of the control of Her Majesty's government.

As to one of these two, the Florida, no information supported by evidence proving, or tending to prove, that she was intended to cruise or carry on war against the United States, was conveyed to or received by Her Britannic Majesty's government previously to her departure from the United Kingdom. On her first arrival in a British colony this vessel was seized under the authority of the governor, but was released for want of proof, by the decree of a court of competent jurisdiction. The Florida, before engaging in any operation of war, entered a port of the Confederate States. She remained there for more than four

months; she there enlisted and shipped a crew, and was put in suitable condition for cruising, and she was from thence sent out to cruise.

In the case of one vessel only, the Alabama, admissible evidence tending to prove the existence of an unlawful intention was furnished to Her Britannic Majesty's government before the departure of the ship. This evidence was supplied little by little, the last installment of it being delivered on the fourth day before her departure. She put to sea unregistered and without a clearance, under the pretense that she was about to make a trial trip and return to her moorings. The circumstances under which the evidence relating to this vessel was received, referred to the legal advisers of the government, and by them consid ered and reported on, are stated in Part VI of this case.

All the information furnished by Mr. Adams to Her Majesty's gov ernment, as well in relation to the Alabama as in relation to each of the three other vessels hereinbefore specified, was referred by the secretary of state for foreign affairs, with the utmost expedition, to the proper departments of the government, for inquiry, and in order that measures might be immediately taken, should occasion so require, for the due

enforcement of the law. Inquiry was accordingly made in every [164] case. In cases of the Georgia and the Shenandoah, nothing

could be done, since each of these vessels had already departed from Her Majesty's dominions. In that of the Florida no evidence of unlawful intention was or could be obtained while she was within the United Kingdom. In that of the Alabama, the persons having possession of the ship carried her to sea before the order for seizing her was given.

In estimating the reasonableness of the views acted upon by Her Majesty's government as to the sufficiency of the information and evidence from time to time submitted to them respecting apprehended infractions of the law by the construction and equipment of warlike vessels for the service of the Confederate States, it is necessary throughout to bear in mind not only that the trade of ship-building is a great and important branch of industry, which Her Majesty's government was not required by any international duty to place under restrictions unauthorized by law, and over which it was not justitied in assuming any arbitrary control, but also that the principal firms of British shipbuilders had been for a long time in the habit of entering into contracts with foreign governments in all parts of the world for the construction, equipment, and sale of ships of war; such contracts being privately negotiated, in the ordinary course of business, without any power on the part of the government to inquire into or interfere with them. No presumption, therefore, as to the real destination of any such vessel would in any case arise from the mere fact of her having a warlike character, although she might be in course of building during a state of war between particular powers, while others were at peace.

In the papers relating to the iron-clad rams at Liverpool, ample illustration will be found of the difficulties which were liable to arise from this state of things whenever it became necessary to prove the actual purpose for which a ship of this character was being constructed, difficulties which, in the end, rendered it ultimately advisable for Her Majesty's government to pay a very large sum of money for the purchase of the rams rather than risk the uncertain result of a trial.

The four vessels above specified were procured from British ports, or purchased from British owners, by the persons comprising the de facto government of the Confederate States through their agents, and passed into the possession and control of that government. After possession