Washington; or such sealed bags or parcels may be at once forwarded to this Department, to the end that the proper authorities of the foreign Government may receive the same without delay. "The President desires especially that naval officers may be informed that the fact that a suspected vessel has been indicated to them as cruising in any limit which has been prescribed to them by the Navy Department, does not in any way authorize them to depart from the practice of the rules of visitation, search, and capture prescribed by the law of nations. "Instructions similar to these will be given to the District Attorneys of the United States. 'While preparing the above, your letter of the 5th instant, with the accompanying Report of Commander James Madison Frailey, has been brought to my attention. This Report does not seem to obviate the necessity of a fuller one from that officer on the points raised by Admiral Milne. I will consequently thank you to require a supplementary Report of that character. "I am, &c. Chap. XII. (Extract.) Earl Russell to Mr. Stuart. "Foreign Office, October 10, 1862. "Her Majesty's Government are glad to find from your despatch of August 12th that the orders originally given to American cruisers, in regard to interference with neutral vessels, have been rescinded. If those orders had been sanctioned and continued in force by the Government of the United States, they would have called for prompt and firm remonstrance on the part of Her Majesty's Government; and it will be proper that you should intimate to Mr. Seward, while expressing the satisfaction of Her Majesty's Government at their revocation, that Her Majesty's Government are glad to be thereby spared from the necessity of stating their decided objections to their tenor. You will say that to order vessels, though apparently and prima facie carrying on a lawful trade, to be systematically seized on the high seas, without any preliminary search, or without the discovery, during such search, of any strong evidence of suspicion against such vessels, would be to subject the mercantile marine of neutrals to a system of oppression and annoyance which no neutral Government could be expected to tolerat. The unjust seizure under urgent circumstances of a neutral vessel may be considered as one of the occasional burdens which a state of war may impose upon a neutral, and it may be partially compensated by the condemnation of the captor in costs, or in costs and damages; but the indiscriminate and general seizure of merchant-vessels, without previous search, converts an occasional exception into an intolerable rule. Y Chap. XII, "The question which has arisen in this case as to the seizure of Her Majesty's mails on board the Adela, while it forms a new and very important element in this case, deserving very grave consideration, raises a point of some delicacy and difficulty. Her Majesty's Government cannot doubt that the Government of the United States are prepared to concede that all mail-bags, clearly certified to be such, shall be exempt from seizure or visitation, and that some arrangement shall be made for immediately forwarding such bags to their destination. in the event of the ship which carries them being detained. If this is done, the necessity for discussing the claim, as a matter of strict right, that Her Majesty's mails, on board a private vessel, should be exempted from visitation or detention, might be avoided; and it is therefore desirable that you should ascertain from Mr. Seward whether the Government of the United States admits the principle that Her Majesty's mail-bags shall neither be searched nor detained." "My Lord, 66 Mr. Stuart to Earl Russell. "Washington, November 4, 1862. 'I read the other day to Mr. Seward that portion of your Lordship's despatch of the 10th ultimo, which related to the instructions recently given to the United States' naval officers in regard to the exercise of their belligerent rights in the search and capture of merchant-vessels, as well as to the question of the exemption from visitation or detention of Her Majesty's mails, when any should be found on board such vessels. "Mr. Seward showed great readiness to admit the principle for which Her Majesty's Government would otherwise have been prepared to contend, with respect to mail-bags clearly certified to be such; and in order that there might be no misunderstanding upon the subject, it was agreed between us that I should make the inquiry in an unofficial letter to which he would give a satisfactory reply. "I have the honour to inclose copies of the letters which we have consequently interchanged, including a copy of a despatch from him to the Secretary of the Navy, requesting that instructions may be given to their naval officers not to search or open the public mails of any friendly or neutral Power found on board captured vessels, but to put the same, as speedily as may be convenient, on their way to their designated destinations, merely providing that the instructions should not be deemed to protect simulated mails verified by forged certificates or counterfeited seals. PERSONS CAPTURED IN BLOCKADE - RUNNERS. 323 Mr. Seward to Mr. Welles. "Department of State, Washington, “Sir, "It is thought expedient that instructions be given to the blockading and naval officers that, in case of capture of merchant-vessels suspected or found to be vessels of the insurgents or contraband, the public mails of any friendly or neutral Power, duly certified and authenticated as such, shall not be searched or opened, but be put, as speedily as may be convenient, on their way to their designated destinations. This instruction, however, will not be deemed to protect simulated mail-bags, verified by forged certificates or counterfeited seals. "I have, &c. (Signed) "WILLIAM H. SEWARD." Lord Lyons to Mr. Seward. "Sir, "I have, &c. The following instructions, issued in the third year of the war, relate to the treatment of persons taken on board of ships engaged in blockade-running. In some 1 66 "The captain of a merchant steamer is not privileged from search by the fact that he has a Government mail on board; on the contrary, he is bound by that circumstance to strict performance of neutral duties and special respect for belligerent rights." (Judgment in The Peterhoff, cited above.) Where there is no special privilege, there is no special obligation, unless it be an obligation which the neutral master owes to his own Government. Otherwise, the foregoing observation is just. Neutral vessels carrying mails cannot on that account claim to be exempt from search, unless by virtue of a special Convention, and the terms of such a Convention would need to be carefully considered. Chap. XII. 324 PERSONS CAPTURED IN BLOCKADE-RUNNERS. Chap. XII. cases, which occurred soon after the commencement of the blockade, British subjects so taken had been detained as prisoners, and required, as the condition of their release, to promise in writing that they would not again embark in a like enterprise, or otherwise interfere with the suppression of the rebellion. The Federal Government, on its attention being called to these irregularities, which were due entirely to the mistaken zeal of its officers, had directed that they should not be repeated, and that the seamen should be considered as absolved from a promise which ought never to have been exacted from them. Mr. Welles to Rear-Admiral Farragut. Sir, "Navy Department, May 9, 1864. "The following instructions will hereafter be observed with regard to the disposition of persons found on board vessels seized for breach of blockade: "1. Bona fide foreign subjects captured in neutral vessels, whether passengers, officers, or crew, cannot be treated as prisoners of war, unless guilty of belligerent acts, but are entitled to immediate release; such as are required as witnesses may be detained for that purpose, and when their testimony is secured they must be unconditionally released. "2. Foreign subjects captured in vessels without papers or colours, or those sailing under the protection and flag of the insurgent Government, or employed in the service of that Government, are subject to treatment as prisoners of war, and, if in the capacity of officers or crew, are to be detained. If they are passengers only, and have no interest in the vessel or cargo, and are in no way connected with the insurgent Government, they may be released. "3. Citizens of the United States captured in either neutral or rebel vessels are always to be detained, with the following exceptions:-If they are passengers only, have no interest in the vessel or cargo, have not been active in the rebellion, or engaged in supplying the insurgents with munitions of war, &c., and are loyally disposed, they may be released on taking the cath of allegiance. The same privilege may be allowed to any of the crew that are not seafaring men, of like antecedents, and who are loyally disposed. "4. Pilots and seafaring men, excepting bond fide foreign subjects, captured in neutral vessels, are always to be detained. These are the principal instruments in maintaining the system of violating the blockade, and it is important to hold them. Persons habitually Chap. XII. engaged in violating the blockade, although they may not be serving on board the vessels, are of this class, and are to be likewise detained. "5. When there is reason to doubt that those who claim to be foreign subjects are in reality such, they will be required to state under oath that they have never been naturalized in this country, have never exercised the privileges of a citizen thereof, by voting or otherwise, and have never been in the pay or employment of the insurgent, or socalled 'Confederate Government;' on their making such statement they may be released, provided you have not evidence of their having sworn falsely. The examination in case they are doubtful should be rigid. "6. When the neutrality of a vessel is doubtful, or when a vessel claiming to be neutral is believed to be engaged in transporting supplies and munitions of war for the insurgent Government, foreign subjects captured in such vessels may be detained until the neutrality of the vessel is satisfactorily established. It is not advisable to detain such persons under this instruction, unless there is good ground for doubting the neutrality of the vessel. "7. Parties who may be detained under the foregoing instructions are to be sent to a Northern port for safe custody, unless there is a suitable place for keeping them within the limits of your command, and the Department furnished with a memorandum in their cases respectively. "Very respectfully, &c. (Signed) "GIDEON WELLES, An incident in the history of the blockade, which gave rise to a brief correspondence between the two Governments, may fitly close this chapter. The Emily St. Pierre, a British ship, was captured on the 18th March, 1862 by a steamer detached from the blockading squadron off Charleston. She was on a voyage from Calcutta, with orders to make the coast of South Carolina, and ascertain whether it was still under blockade. If so, she was to go to New Brunswick; if not, she was to enter Charleston harbour. She had no contraband on board. When seized she was on the high seas, ten or twelve miles from shore, heading straight for Charleston. Her crew were taken out of her, except the master, cook, and steward, who were |