a vessel suited for a cruiser, and to go to sea in command of her himself. In pursuance of those instructions, he made an arrangement with an eminent firm of builders on the Clyde for a composite screw-steamer. The vessel was nearly ready for sea, but was still in 'possession of the builders, and was, in fact, their property, when she was seized by the Government. The following extract from the published account of the proceedings in the Scotch Courts will afford all the information in my possession, and, indeed, all that is of any public interest in respect to the above vessel, inasmuch as she never really became a Confederate vessel at all:

'In November, 1863, the Pampero was lying at Lancefield Quay (Glasgow), and was detained by the Government. This case did not go to trial. The condition of the ship at the time of seizure was similar to that of the Alexandra, and had the case proceeded there would have been in the Scotch courts the prolonged litigation, expense, and uncertainty which had characterized the Alexandra case in England. Under these circumstances, the owners of the vessel came to a compromise with the Government. It was agreed that a verdict should be entered for the Crown on one count of the 'information,' that the owners should retain and trade with the vessel, but that they should not sell her for two years without the consent of the Crown. Therefore the judgment delivered by Lord Armidale allowed the owners to withdraw from the cause . . . without any liability being incurred by any parties to the suit, and found for the Crown on the 37th count,'

etc.

No other attempts were made to obtain in Europe vessels for the Confederate naval service than those

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47

which are described in this and the preceding chapters, and the facts relating to those efforts have been told without reservation.

Besides the numerous opprobrious epithets applied to the Confederate Government and its agents by Mr. Seward and the Consuls, for attempting to carry on a naval war against the United States, it appears to have been their impression that British shipbuilders, conscious that they were acting illegally, charged extravagant prices for the vessels supplied to the Confederacy, and that the nefarious practices' of the Confederate agents required a lavish expenditure of money. In refutation of that opinion, which frequently appears in the correspondence rather, however, as an insinuation than a positive assertion-I will merely state that every transaction conducted by me on behalf of the Navy Department was based upon cash payment, and no more than actual value at the time was paid for any articles, whether ships or general supplies.

The peculiar position of affairs imposed upon a Confederate agent expenses of an exceptional character, which would not have been necessary under different circumstances. Often contraband goods had to be shipped under disguises and concealments, in order to escape the liability of having the vessel seized on suspicion of being intended for a cruiser, and whenever a vessel was really despatched with the purpose to convert her into a man-of-war, it was necessary to provide a tender, and to incur other incidental expenses. But nothing more than actual value was ever paid for any ship, and no risk or responsibility was assumed by any one who built a vessel for me, or sold one to me on behalf of the Confederate Government, except what is ordinarily embraced in such transactions, and I venture to say the

same in reference to any other naval agent of that Government.

A few specifications may help to confirm the above statement, and may possibly be of some historical in

terest.

The Alabama cost £47,500 as delivered by the builders; her naval equipments and other incidental expenses required an additional sum of £13,437 8s. 7d., and she was supplied with £20,000 as a cruising fund, and for pay of officers and men. No remittances were

made to her while cruising, and Captain Semmes drew no bills, so that the entire expenditure on account of the Alabama, from the time her keel was laid until she sunk off Cherbourg, was £80,937 8s. 7d., and I do not believe any vessel of her class was ever built and kept two years in commission for less.

The expenditure on the Florida, up to her arrival in Brest, September, 1863, had been in cost, £35,950, other expenses, £9,678 4s. 9d., or total expenditure to that date, £45,628 4s. 9d. The foregoing figures do not include the amount which may have been expended while she was in Mobile, and does not include her cruising fund, which was supplied by arrangements with the Treasury when she left Mobile.

expenses

The gross expenditure in the purchase and all the of the Shenandoah's cruise was £53,715 10s. 9d. The foregoing accounts are of course exclusive of the cost and expenses of the tenders, but they include the cost of everything supplied to the vessels named. In regard to the tenders, it may be stated that if taken in the aggregate, they much more than recouped their cost. by the successful voyages made through the blockade, and by their subsequent sale after they had completed the original service for which they were bought.

It is true that the Agrippina did not sell at her cost price, and the freight she earned on her last homeward voyage from Bahia did not make up the deficit; but the Laurel must be credited with a large sum on account of inward freight to Charleston. She then brought out between 600 and 700 bales of cotton, and was sold The other naval tender made several successful voyages through the blockade, and was then sold for more than two-thirds of her cost. Looking at those transactions, therefore, from a commercial point of view, it may be affirmed that the Confederate cruisers were not set afloat or maintained in an extravagant manner.

at cost.

CHAPTER V.

Official dispositions of Holland, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, France, and Great Britain to the Confederate States.-The position assumed by Mr. Seward at the beginning of the Civil War.-The policy of the British Government.-English feeling in favour of the North. Facts about slavery in America.-English sympathy transferred to the South.-Lack of courtesy and dignity in United States representatives.-The Alabama Claims.-Synopsis of the negotiations respecting those claims.-Position of the British Government in regard to them.-The three rules of the Treaty of Washington.-A possible application of them to the United States.

THERE was one result of the Confederate naval operations in Europe which Mr. Davis and his Cabinet could not have foreseen, and to which they had no purpose to contribute when it was determined to attack the enemy's commerce from across the sea. It doubtless often occurred to them, as it did to many others, that questions of belligerent rights and neutral duties would arise, and that the United States would become involved in complicated discussions with foreign Powers, which might in some way or other be helpful to the cause of the South. As the war progressed, and they beheld the arrogant pretensions of Mr. Seward, and the haughty offensive and dictatorial tone in which he urged them, it was thought that he would very probably draw upon himself and upon his country something more than