overthrow the government, can be justified by the declaration of her Majesty's ministers that they have already recognized the belligerent character of those insurgents, and will continue to so consider them. It is, indeed, true that her Majesty's proclamation has been issued for the regulation of all her own subjects, and that it has been interpreted by her government as recognizing the insurgents as a belligerent. But it is equally true that the government of the United States declines to accept any such interpretation as modifying in the least degree its own rights and powers, or the obligations of all friendly nations towards it. Still adhering to this position, the undersigned is instructed to announce, as the result of the most calm and impartial deliberation upon the question thus submitted for its decision, the necessity which his government feels itself under to revoke the exequatur of Mr. Bunch. Neither has this step been taken without the pressure of a strong conviction that, independently of the facts already alleged, his personal conduct, even down to the time this correspondence has been going on, as well as before it commenced, has been that, not of a friend of the government, nor even of a neutral, but of a partisan of faction and disunion. In conclusion, it is with much pleasure that the undersigned has it in his power to convey to Earl Russell the sense entertained by the President of the action of her Majesty's representative at Washington. It is felt to be due to him as well as to his government to say that in all his proceedings he has carefully respected the sovereignty and the rights of the United States, and that the arrangements which have been made by him, with the entire approval of the government, for establishing a communication between his government and its consuls, through the national vessels of Great Britain entering blockaded ports, without carrying passengers or private letters, bid fair to preclude all necessity for a recurrence of such proceedings as those which have necessitated this painful correspondence. Having thus performed the duty imposed upon him of announcing that the exequatur of Mr. Bunch has been withdrawn because his services are no longer agreeable to the government of the United States, the undersigned is further instructed to say that the consular privileges thus taken from him will be cheerfully allowed to any successor whom her Majesty may be pleased to appoint, against whom no grave personal objections are known to exist. The undersigned has the honor to renew to Earl Russell the assurances of the highest consideration with which he is his lordship's most obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. The Right Hon. EARL RUSSELL, &c., &c., &c. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. No. 75.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to transmit a copy of a note of Lord Russell, dated the 15th of this month, in reply to mine addressed to him on the day previous, on the subject of the intercepted bag of Mr. Bunch, a copy of which was sent forward with my despatch to the department, No. 71, dated the 14th instant. I have taken no special notice of the closing observations, for the reason, 1st, that his lordship transfers the discussion to Washington; and 2d, that in another note addressed to him, under instructions, on the case of Mr. Bunch, allusion is incidentally made to the subject as having been already arranged between Lord Lyons and yourself. 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, November 15, 1861. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 14th instant, which confirms the statements you made to me orally on Wednesday last. I have only to add that, believing the cause of the stoppage of Mr. Bunch's bag to have been a bona fide suspicion on the part of the United States government that the bag might contain despatches from the so-styled Confederate States, I did not think it necessary to address Lord Lyons further on the subject. With respect to your remarks on the subject of correspondence of British subjects in the southern States, the inconveniences consequent upon the present state of things are so great that her Majesty's government are obliged, seriously, to consider whether means may not be found, compatible with the vigorous prosecution of the war, by which those inconveniences may be remedied, at least in part. Her Majesty's government are, accordingly, occupied in devising measures which, when matured, may afford some hope of redress for the injuries sustained by British subjects in consequence of the present state of things. The measures to be proposed will be communicated, as soon as they are matured, to the Secretary of State of the United States by Lord Lyons. 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. 81.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith the copy of a note addressed by Earl Russell to me on the 26th instant, in reply to mine on the subject of the revocation of Mr. Bunch's exequatur. I likewise subjoin a copy of my note addressed to him in answer. I have confined myself almost entirely to those portions in which his lordship calls my positions into question, and have left his declarations of future intentions to be dealt by the government if it be deemed worth while to continue the discussion. Other matters are so constantly occurring of a more imperative nature as to render this of very secondary consequence. It is plain, from the turn which has been taken in the newspapers of this morning, that the law officers of the crown have modified their original position so far as to deny the right of the United States government to take out persons when they do not take papers and things. In other words, Great Britain would have been less offended if the United States had insulted her a great deal more. There is little reason to doubt that the same steamer which bears this will carry out a demand for an apology and the restoration of the men. I confess that the turn things have taken has given me great anxiety for the fate of my unhappy country. But I shall await with resignation the instructions which will probably close my mission. 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, November 26, 1861. The undersigned, her Majesty's principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, has received, with much concern, the note which Mr. Adams, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States at this court, addressed to him on the 21st instant, in which he announces the result of what Mr. Adams states to have been the calm and impartial deliberation by the United States government upon the question submitted for its decision the necessity which that government feels itself under to revoke the exequatur of Mr. Robert Bunch, her Majesty's consul at Charleston. In discussing this matter, the undersigned will put aside all allegations. of the unknown letter-writer concerning Mr. Bunch's supposed conversation referred to in a former communication of Mr. Adams; for it may now be affirmed that those allegations, unsupported as they are by any proof, were entirely unfounded. Neither will the undersigned take any notice of the charge made against Mr. Bunch that his conduct has been that of a partisan of faction and disunion, because that charge is equally unsupported by any proof whatever, and is equally unfounded. The withdrawal of Mr. Bunch's exequatur does not, however, appear to rest upon these unfounded allegations, nor on these groundless charges. It is said to rest upon a law of the United States, of which it is said her Majesty's government might pardonably have been ignorant, but which Mr. Bunch was bound to have brought to their notice. This law, as Mr. Adams affirms, forbids, "under a heavy penalty, any person not specially appointed, or duly authorized by the President, whether citizen or denizen, privileged or unprivileged, from counselling, advising, aiding, or assisting in any political correspondence with the government of any foreign state whatever, with an intent to influence the measures of any foreign government, or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of their government." Taking Mr. Adams's description of this statute as full and accurate, the undersigned has to remark that the statute seems to have been enacted for the purpose of preventing citizens or denizens of the United States from aiding or counselling foreign governments with regard to their disputes with the United States. If this be so, Mr. Bunch, having no mission or instruction to aid or counsel a foreign state at enmity with the United States, and not having done so, would have no reason to suppose that a statute made "alio intuitu" could be so construed as to apply to his execution of the instructions he had received from her Majesty's government; and therefore there could be no reason why he should have brought to the notice of her Majesty's government an United States statute which had no bearing whatever upon anything which he was instructed to do. The undersigned has further to remark that the United States government, by their quotation of the statute in question as the foundation on which they rest their complaint against Mr. Bunch, seem distinctly to admit that the government of the Confederate States at Richmond is, as regards the United States, "the government of a foreign state"-an admission which goes further than any acknowledgment with regard to those States which her Majesty's government have hitherto made. But if the Confederate States are, as Mr. Adams's note implies as regards the United States, a foreign state, then the President of the United States has no competence, one way or the other, with respect to the functions of the consuls of other governments in that foreign state, and the exequaturs of such consuls can be granted or withdrawn only by the government of such foreign state, for the Confederate States cannot be at one and the same time "a foreign state" and part of the territory of the United States. But there is a further question raised by the United States government which is of deep and urgent importance. Mr. Adams is instructed to say that any communication to be addressed to the government of the so-called Confederate States respecting the goods of a belligerent on board of neutral ships, or the goods of a neutral on board of belligerent ships, should have been made by diplomatic and 'not by consular agents; and that the "only authority in the United States to which any diplomatic communication whatever can be made is the government of the United States itself." Mr. Adams must be aware that this assertion raises grave questions both of fact and of law. In the first place, when her Majesty's government are gravely told that an application to the Confederate government for redress ought to be made through the President of the United States, they might well ask whether such a position is seriously laid down, and whether the President of the United States can affirm that in the present condition of things he has the power to give effect to any such application which might be made to him. For instance, a British subject at New Orleans or Galveston might be carried away by force to serve with the confederate troops; could the President of the United States set him free? might he not be killed in battle by a ball or a bullet from the United States army as the only release he could obtain from President Lincoln from his compulsory service? Again: the private debts due to a British subject in Louisiana or in Arkansas may be confiscated and paid into the public treasury of the State by a law or decree of the so-styled Confederate Congress; could the President or Secretary of State of the United States obtain the recovery of these sums; or could he secure immunity from confiscation for the landed property of British subjects in the eleven Confederate States? If the President of the United States cannot do this, the course of proceeding suggested by Mr. Adams would be altogether illusory. But next as to a question of international law. Her Majesty's government hold it to be an undoubted principle of international law, that when the persons or the property of the subjects or citizens of a state are injured by a de facto government, the state so aggrieved has a right to claim from the de facto government redress and reparation; and also that in cases of apprehended losses or injury to their subjects, states may lawfully enter into communication with de facto governments to provide for the temporary security of the persons and property of their subjects. Acting upon this last-mentioned principle, her Majesty's government entered into concert with the government of the Emperor of the French in regard to certain articles of the declaration of Paris. The result was an instruction which was to be carried into effect by the British and French consuls at Charleston, and they both executed their commission unostentatiously but effectively. It may be necessary in future, for the protection of the interests of her Majesty's subjects in the vast extent of country which resists the authority of the United States, to have further communications both with the central authority at Richmond and with the governors of the separate States, and in such cases such communications will continue to be made, but such communications will not imply any acknowledgment of the confederates as an independent state. The undersigned has read with sincere pleasure the testimony voluntarily borne by the President of the United States to the care with which Lord Lyons has respected the sovereignty and the rights of the United States, and the undersigned feels it right to say that in very difficult circumstances the conduct of Mr. Adams, while upholding the authority and interests of his own government, has been such as to acquire the esteem and respect of the government of her. Majesty and of the British nation. The undersigned requests Mr. Adams to accept the assurance of his highest consideration. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, &C., &c., &c. RUSSELL. Mr. Adams to Earl Russell. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, November 29, 1861. The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States, has the honor to acknowledge the reception of a note from the right honorable Earl Russell, her Majesty's principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, dated the 26th instant, in answer to a previous one of his own, dated the 21st instant, announcing the decision of the government of the United States to withdraw the exequatur of Mr. Bunch, her Majesty's consul at Charleston, in South Carolina. The undersigned will do himself the honor to transmit his lordship's note for the information of his government by the first opportunity. The undersigned, disclaiming any desire to continue discussion upon a painful topic one moment longer than a necessity for it shall continue to exist, yet feels as if he could not, in justice to himself as well as to his own government, omit this opportunity to explain some passages of his former note, which appear to him to have been in a degree misunderstood by Earl Russell. He confesses himself at a loss to comprehend in what manner he should have been so unfortunate in his use of language as to give ground for his lordship's statement "that the United States government, by their quotation of the statute to which reference has been made as the foundation on which they rest their complaint against Mr. Bunch, seem deliberately to admit that the government of the Confederate States at Richmond is, as regards the United States, the government of a foreign state-an admission which goes further than any acknowledgment with regard to those States which her Majesty's government have hitherto made." If the undersigned have given just cause for any construction of the action of his government approximating to that indicated in the preceding extract from his lordship's note, then has he indeed committed, in his estimation, a most grave mistake. But on a careful re-examination of his note of the 21st, the undersigned must |