No. 216.] Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to transmit a copy of a note received from Earl Russell, dated the 28th of August, in acknowledgment of the prompt action of the government in response to his suggestion for the more perfect execution of the late treaty on the slave trade. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. FOREIGN OFFICE, August 28, 1862. SIR: I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22d instant, informing me that the government of the United States acquiesce in the suggestions which I had the honor to make to you in my letter of the 17th of July last, in reference to the issuing of passports or safe conducts to vessels legally employed on the African coast; and I have, in reply, to request that you will express to Mr. Seward the acknowledgments of her Majesty's government for the prompt compliance on the part of the United States government with the suggestions of her Majesty's government in this matter. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient humble servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. RUSSELL. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. No. 219.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to transmit the copy of a note addressed to me by Lord Russell, touching the case of the steamer Oreto at Nassau, with the accompanying papers. It is a little remarkable that, with the exception of a single sentence, not an intimation is given in them by the respective parties of a consciousness of the real destination of that vessel. I have sent to Mr. Dudley, at Liverpool, to know if more decisive evidence might not be obtained in other quarters. I presume that Mr. Dudley keeps the government fully informed of the change of the chrysalis 290 into the butterfly Alabama, on a piratical cruise against American shipping. It turned out, as I expected, that she did not go to Nassau. Her difficulty will be to keep supplied with coals. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. FOREIGN OFFICE, August 29, 1862. SIR: With reference to the case of the steamer Oreto, which you are probably aware has been seized at Nassau and is to be tried before the admiralty court of the Bahamas for a breach of the foreign enlistment act, I have the honor to enclose for your information copies of a report and its enclosures from the commissioners of customs with reference to a suggestion I had made to the treasury, that a competent officer should be sent to Nassau to give evidence as to what occurred at Liverpool in the case of that vessel. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. RUSSELL. No. 439.] CUSTOM-HOUSE, August 25, 1862. To the lords commissioners of her Majesty's treasury: Your lords having, by Mr. Hamilton's letters of 20th instant, transmitted to us, with reference to previous correspondence on the subject of the gunboat Oreto, which was fitted out at Liverpool and bas since been captured by her Majesty's steamer Greyhound at Nassau for an alleged violation of the foreign enlistment act, copy of a letter from the foreign office and of its enclosure on the subject of the proceeding to be adopted in the matter, and requested that he would take the necessary steps for sending to Nassau some gentleman connected with the department competent to afford the information required in the case, we beg to transmit, for the information of your lords, copies of the report of our collector at Liverpool, with whom we have been in communication on the subject, together with copies of the statements of Mr. Morgan, the surveyor, and Mr. Lloyd, the examining officer, who visited and kept watch on the Öreto from the time that suspicions were first entertained of her being fitted for the so-called Confederate States until she sailed from the port, together with copy of the statement on oath of Mr. Parry, the pilot who had charge of the ship from the time she left the Toxteth dock until she left the Mersey; and, as from these papers the pilot would appear to be the most fitting person to give evidence in the case, we beg to be favored with your lords' further instructions as to the person who should be directed to proceed to Nassau. F. GOULBURN. Report of the collector at Liverpool, August 23, 1862. HONORABLE SIRS: It will be seen from the annexed statement of Mr. Morgan, surveyor, that he will be able to state the fact of the vessel being built by Messrs. Miller & Sons, and of the absence of all warlike stores on board when she left the docks, while the evidence of Mr. Lloyd, the examining officer, fully supports the statement of the pilot, Mr. Parry, which, from its importance, I have taken on oath, as it appears to me he would be the most fitting person to give evidence of the absence of all warlike stores on board the vessel when she left this country. I am satisfied that she took no such stores on board, and indeed it is stated, though I know not on what authority, that her armament was conveyed in another vessel to Nassau. The board will, therefore, perceive that the evidence to be obtained from this port will all go to prove that she left Liverpool altogether unarmed, and that while here she had in no way violated the law. S. PRICE EDWARDS. Statement of Mr. Ed. Morgan, surveyor in her Majesty's custom-house at the port of Liverpool. I am one of the surveyors of customs at this port. Pursuant to instructions I received from the collector on the 21st of February, in the present year, and at subsequent dates, I visited the steamer Oreto, at various times, when she was being fitted out in the dock close to the yard of Messrs. Miller & Sons, the builders of the vessel. I continued this inspection, from time to time, until she left the dock, and I am certain that when she went into the river she had no warlike stores of any kind whatever on board. After she went into the river she was constantly watched by the boarding officers, who were directed to report to me whenever any goods were taken on board; but in reply to my frequent inquiries they stated nothing was put in the ship but coal. ED. MORGAN, Surveyor. Statement of Mr. Henry Lloyd, examining officer in her Majesty's customs at the port of Liverpool. In consequence of instructions received from Mr. Morgan, surveyor, I, in conjunction with the other three surveyors of the river, kept watch on the proceedings of the vessel Oreto from the time she left the Toxteth dock, on the 4th March last, till the day she sailed, the 22d of the same month. On one occasion I was alongside of her, and spoke to her, Parry, the pilot, and the chief mate. Neither I nor any of the other river surveyors saw at any time any arms or warlike ammunition of any kind taken on board, and we are perfectly satisfied that none such was taken on board during her stay in the river. H. LLOYD, Examining Officer. Statement, on oath, of Mr. Wm. Parry, master pilot in No. 10 boat in the port of Liverpool, taken by the collector of customs. I was the pilot in charge of the ship Oreto when she left the Toxteth dock on the 4th of March, 1862. I continued on board to the day of her sailing, which was the 22d of the same month, and never left her save on Sunday, when all work was suspended. I saw the ship before the coals and provisions were taken into her. There were no munitions of war in her-that is to say, she had no guns, carriages, shot, shell, or powder. Had there been. any on board I must have seen it. I piloted the ship out of the Mersey to Point Lynas, off Anglesea, where I left her, and she proceeded down channel, since when she has not returned. From the time the vessel left the river until I left her she had no communication with the shore or with any other vessel for the purpose of receiving anything like a cargo on board. I frequently saw Mr. Lloyd, the tide surveyor, alongside the ship while in the river. WM. PARRY. Sworn before me at the custom-house, Liverpool, this 23d day, 1862. No. 336.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 8, 1862. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of August 22, No. 208. Mr. Stuart read to me, in due time, the note which Earl Russell had addressed to him on the 28th day of July, commenting upon the despatch No. 260, which I wrote to you so long ago as the 28th day of May last, and which you so properly and promptly put into his hands on the 20th of June last. But Mr. Stuart seemed not to have been instructed to leave a copy with me, and for obvious reasons I did not solicit one. His lordship's proceedings in leaving the paper submitted to him unnoticed until all expectation of special attention to it was given up, and in then taking it up, under a supposed change of affairs in this country, and making it the basis of instruction to Mr. Stuart here, in vindication of the British government, instead of giving an answer through you to the appeal contained in the paper, was indeed extraordinary. It did not, however, seem necessary for any national interest of ours to take special notice of these proceedings. They were at the time attributed by this government to some new political domestic pressure upon the ministry of Great Britain, and I am happy to learn that, according to the best information which we have been able to obtain, such was the case. I shall add only, that however necessary Earl Russell's course in the matter may have been in regard to British interests at home, and however beneficial it may have been to them, it has not made a favorable impression in this country, or produced a conviction here of the friendly feelings and dispositions towards us on the part of Great Britain, which his lordship has so generously, and doubtless with entire sincerity, avowed. You will have learned, before this despatch shall reach you, that our late campaign in Virginia has failed; that the insurgent forces, escaping our armies, have returned to the occupation of Northern Virginia; and have even crossed the upper Potomac and taken up a position at Frederick, in Maryland, where they seem to be threatening alike Washington, Baltimore, and Harrisburgh. In a correspondence like this, which, however confidential in its character, still wears an aspect of being addressed to foreign governments, it would be indiscreet and injudicious to attempt to explain the causes of this very serious reverse. I must be content, therefore, with saying that it seems to have resulted from the fact that our two reunited armies in Virginia were only partially combined and not at all consolidated. There has been, at least, military error somewhere, and an inquiry has been instituted to ascertain where it lies, and with whom the responsibility for the reverse belongs. Our information from the west is that the insurgents are equally bold and adventurous in that quarter, and that although no great disaster has occurred there, new energies of the government are necessary to save the States of Tennessee and Kentucky for the Union, if not to prevent inroads into Ohio. It is not deemed necessary or even practicable, in an emergency where every hour may bring reasons for changes of measures before adopted, to attempt to give you a programme of intended military operations. I confine myself, therefore, to the statement, in general terms, that our armies in Virginia are at last fully consolidated, and that they are already in the positions deemed most advantageous for the restoration of the fortunes of the war. The same is true of our forces elsewhere. The three hundred thousand volunteers called for by the President have already been mustered in the service, and near half of them are in the field. Recruiting still goes on with the utmost spirit, and a considerable portion of the three hundred thousand men expected to be raised by draft are already coming forward as volunteers. The draft will fill up the complement without great delay. Nowhere, neither on the part of the army, nor of the people, does there appear the least sign of indecision or of despondency, although, of course, the country is, for the moment, filled with deep anxiety. We hear, officially and unofficially, of great naval preparations which are on foot in British and other foreign ports, under cover of neutrality, to give to the insurgents a naval force. Among these reports is one that a naval armament is fitting out in England to lay New York under contribution. I think that the vigor of our naval department in building a navy upon a sudden emergency can hardly be surpassed; nevertheless, its progress seems slow to us, under the circumstances. In addition to the Monitor and other iron vessels, already known to you, we have the Ironsides now ready for duty, and a new Monitor is expected to be put into service within the next ten days. Others will soon follow, and we are doing what we can to be prepared for every possible adverse contingency that can affect the situation of the country either at home or abroad. We cannot but regret that the course of administration in Great Britain in such as to render our relations with that country a source of constant and serious apprehension. But it is not perceived here what more can be done than we are doing to preserve an international peace, which, perhaps, cannot be sufficiently valued until, without fault on our part, it shall have been broken. SIR: I have to acknowledge the reception of despatches numbered 328 to 334, both inclusive; likewise of printed circular No. 21, respecting aid to be rendered to the New York Geographical Society, and two copies of the United States Statutes at Large for the year 1861-62. The information furnished of the progress of the war is valuable, and the exposition of the views of the government in its foreign relations is of a most interesting character, and cannot fail to inspire unity of thought and action among the agents of the country abroad, wherever they may be. Nothing has occurred during the past week to vary the aspect of things in this country. There are announcements of increasing distress among the operatives, as the |