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been able to communicate with the law officers of the Crown in that province as to the form in which that document should be framed; the departure from the practice hitherto adopted rendering the form of warrant which has been used on previous occasions of a similar character inapplicable.

According to the opinion of the highest legal authority of the colony, the lieutenant governor is not strictly justified in issuing the warrant in question, without being furnished with some evidence of the guilt of the accused parties, and of the fact that they are now in that province, and Mr. Gordon would have been glad if such information could have been furnished him, in order that his action in the matter should be rightly understood.

His excellency trusts that, at all events, if you have reason to suppose that the parties accused are now in the province of New Brunswick, you will be good enough to direct the United States consul at St. John to furnish him with such information as will enable him to secure their apprehension, as his own inquiries, through the police, have been wholly unsuccessful.

It would appear that in the case of the Chesapeake, as in cases of extradition for murder and forgery, the requisition was made by the consul at St. John, supported by evidence, and this requisition was recited in the commencement of the governor's warrant; and, indeed, on one occasion, in 1856, Mr. Gordon's predecessor refused to issue his warrant on account of the insufficiency of the allegations contained in the requisitions.

His excellency trusts, therefore, that in acting as he is about to do, you will perceive that he is giving ample proof of his desire to render every possible satisfaction to the government of the United States.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most odedient, humble servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c., &c., &c.

J. HUME BURNLEY.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, February 8, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to enclose a copy of a letter of yesterday, addressed, by command of Major General Dix, by Major Charles O. Joline to Major General J. C. Robinson, commanding northern division of New York, in regard to an organization reported to be progressing at or near Cape Vincent, with a view to a marauding expedition into Canadian territory, as an act of retaliation for that upon St. Albans.

I will thank you to advise the Canadian authorities of that project, and that the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General have been apprised of the facts, and requested to instruct the officers of the United States subject to their orders to take measures to prevent any such movement.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient

servant,

J. HUME BURNLEY, Esq., &c, &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Major Joline to Major General Robinson.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,
New York City, February 7, 1865.

GENERAL: The commanding general has information that a man named Briggs has been for some time past, and is now, engaged in organizing a body of men at or near Cape Vincent with the avowed object of making a raid upon Kingston, in retaliation for that upon St. Albans.

The commanding general directs that you make immediate investigation as to this allegation, and that your utmost efforts be used to prevent the outrage, if the same appears to be contemplated.

By command of Major General Dix:

Major General J. C. ROBINSON,

CHARLES O. JOLINE, Major and A. D. C.

Commanding Northern District of New York, Albany.

Mr. Burnley to Mr. Seward.

WASHINGTON, February 9, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of yesterday's date, and of its enclosure, relative to an organization reported to be in progress at or near Cape Vincent, with a view to a marauding expedition into Canadian territory.

I beg to return you my thanks for this friendly communication, and to state that I have this day forwarded copies of the same to his excellency the governor general of Canada.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c., &c., &c.

J. HUME BURNLEY.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, February 9, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 7th instant relative to British claims to portions of the cotton found at Savannah. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient, humble servant,

J. HUME BURNLEY, Esq., Sr., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, February 9, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 31st ultimo, presenting to me the views of his excellency the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia in regard to the steps necessary to be taken to obtain the extradition of fugitives in that province, under the tenth article of the treaty of Washington and the act of Parliament for giving it effect. This communication will receive mature deliberation.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient servant,

J. Hume Burnley, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, February 11, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to inform you that it is considered desirable that the labors of the fishery commission, organized under the 1st article of the treaty of the 5th of June, 1854, be brought to a close at as early a season as may convenient.

be

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient

servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

J. HUME BURNLEY, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, February 11, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 2d instant, together with the accompanying copy of a despatch from the governor general of Canada, and beg that you will convey to him my thanks for the information contained therein.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

J HUME BURNLEY, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, February 14, 1865.

SIR Information, which is fully credited, has been received at this department that the steamer Ajax, which recently sailed from Kingston, Ireland, has gone out for the purpose of being used as a war vessel; that, although she was not armed, she had one hundred hammocks ready to be put up; that her armament has gone or will go in some sailing vessel to meet her at some concerted point, to be there transferred to her. In order the more effectually to screen her piratical designs, it is understood that she will visit Nassau before taking on board her armament.

In view of these circumstances, I beg leave to suggest to you the expediency of your putting her Majesty's authorities at Halifax, Bermuda, and Nassau on their guard to prevent the armament within their jurisdiction of this vessel for purposes hostile to the United States.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient serWILLIAM H. SEWARD.

vant,

J. HUME BURNLEY, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley.

DEPARTMENT of State,

Washington, February 14, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 7th in stant, and of the accompanying copy of a despatch from the governor general of Canada, who states therein, with reference to the contemplated raid by the insurgents in Canada upon the towns of Burlington, in Vermont, and Whitehall, New York, that the government of Canada will use every exertion to defeat its successful issue; and I will thank you to convey to the governor general an expression of my high appreciation of his disposition to prevent the execution of the raid.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient servant,

J. HUME BURNLEY, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, February 14, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 31st ultimo, and of the accompanying papers, from the governor general of Canada, in relation to the two vessels building at Montreal for the service of the insurgents, and I beg you will convey to him my thanks for his prompt attention to the

matter.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient servant,

J. HUME BURNLEY, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, February 14, 1865.

SIR I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 6th instant, and of the accompanying copy of a despatch from the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, in regard to co-operation with the officials of this government in preventing the successful issue of the insurgent scheme in that province to destroy United States ships, and I will thank you to convey to the lieutenant governor an expression of my high appreciation of his friendly disposition toward the United States.

I have the honor to be, with high consideration, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

J. HUME BURNLEY, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

No. 53.]

[Communicated by British legation.]

Earl Russell to Mr. Burnley.

FOREIGN OFFICE, February 15, 1865.

SIR: Mr. Adams came yesterday, by appointment, to the Foreign Office. I told Mr. Adams that the cabinet had taken into consideration the complaints which he had made from time to time, by order of his government, of the confederate hostilities in the lakes of Canada, of the raid at St. Albans, and of the vessels built or fitted out in British

ports which were afterwards found converted into ships-of-war, cruising against the commerce of the United States. That the orders sent to the governor of Canada by her Majesty's government, and the proceedings not only of the governor general, but of the legislature in Canada, would, I trusted, convince the United States government that everything had been done, or would be done, to prevent the carrying on of hostilities against the United States from Canadian territory or on Canadian waters.

With respect to the ships built, bought, or fitted out in the ports of the United Kingdom, the question was more difficult. We had tried prosecution, and had to a great extent prevented the equipment of warlike vessels in her Majesty's ports and rivers, to be afterwards used as confederate vessels-of-war; but this success only rendered the confederate agents more cautious in carrying out their designs. Supposing a merchant ship to be bought and sent out ostensibly to Bombay, another vessel laden with cannon and warlike equipments, with a large ship's company, should be nominally bound to Mexico, and that these two vessels should meet, say at the Cape Verde islands, and one of these vessels to be there converted into a confederate cruiser, with a confederate captain and a confederate crew: how was such a transaction to be prevented? Would not the plans of the confederate agents and of their friends in the country be kept so secret that no law existing, or to be made, could reach them?

I said that, struck by the difficulties, her Majesty's government had determined to address the confederate commissioners at Paris; and I then proceeded to read to Mr. Adams the letter of which I enclose a copy. But I said there was always great difficulty in communicating with the confederate authorities at Richmond, and it had occurred to the cabinet that, as the government at Washington must have opportunities of communicating with the confederates on questions which always arise in the course of protracted hostilities, I might fairly ask Mr. Seward, through the organ of Mr. Adams, to convey my letter safely to the confederate authorities.

Mr. Adams raised the difficulties that the confederates might doubt the authenticity of the letter; but, as I told him that the original had been sent the day before to Lord Cowley, to be delivered to Mr. Mason, Mr. Adams acknowledged that difficulty to be removed.

I said that either the confederates would accept our conditions, or they would refuse compliance, and in the last case it would be for her Majesty's government to consider what was next to be done.

Mr. Adams said that in either case he thought advantage would accrue to the United States; but he feared that the facility with which the confederates had obtained ships for hostile purposes in a neutral country would furnish very dangerous precedents to belligerents in any future war.

I am, with great respect, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, J. HUME BURNLEY, &c., &c., &c.

RUSSELL.

Mr. Burnley to Mr. Seward.

WASHINGTON, February 15, 1865.

SIR: With reference to your note of the 25th ultimo, relative to the extradition of Braine and others, charged with the commission of piracy and murder on the American steamer Chesapeake, I beg leave to enclose copy of a despatch and enclosures which I have received on this subject from the lieutenant governor of New Brunswick, to whom the requisition for the extradition of the offenders was addressed, stating that no efforts will be spared on his excellency's part to secure their immediate arrest.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

J. HUME BURNLEY.

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c., &c., &c.

Mr. Gordon to Mr. Burnley.

FREDERICTON, N. B., February 7, 1865.

SIR: I have had the honor to receive your despatch of the 27th ultimo. I request that you will have the goodness to thank Mr. Seward, in my behalf, for the communication of the information which has reached him as to the presence in this province of

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