violation of the Act within the limits of his juris- Chap. XIII. diction, and no evidence produced connecting her with the Confederate Government.1 A second crew was shipped, but these also refused to go, and she went to sea at last with five firemen and fourteen deck hands.

The Oreto had in fact been ordered by Bullock, as agent for the Confederate Government, from one shipbuilding firm, as the Alabama had been ordered by him from another; and Captain Maffit, the officer appointed to command her, was all this while at Nassau, awaiting the result of the trial. Having at last got her to sea, he proceeded, not to Havana, but to an islet due south of New Providence, one of that multitude of limestone rocks-mostly desolate and uninhabited, and called (from the Spanish word cayo) "cays," or "keys "-with which these seas are studded, and the principal cluster of which forms the Bahamas. At Green Key he took guns and stores on board from a schooner sent to meet him there by a Confederate agent at Nassau, hoisted the Confederate flag, and gave his steamer the name of the Florida. But his scanty crew was in a few days reduced by yellow fever to one fireman and four deck hands; with his vessel thus completely disabled he made his way to Cardenas in Cuba, and thence to Havana; and on the 4th September ran into Mobile, in broad daylight, through the fire of three blockading ships, without returning a shot, and with only a steersman on deck; his little handful of men sent below, and himself so weakened by sickness as to be unable to move without assistance. The officer commanding the blockading force was dismissed the service for this mishap, which he attributed to the superior speed of the Confederate ship, and (with more justice) to

1 The only acts proved were the putting of straps on some spare blocks, and the putting on board of some shell in boxes; but these had been re-landed before the seizure. It was sworn that, as regarded her fittings, no alteration had been made since she left Liverpool.

Chap. XIII. the "unparalleled audacity" of the Confederate sailor.1 The Florida remained in Mobile till the 16th January, 1863, when her fearless commander, his ship now in fighting condition, put to sea and commenced a cruise, to which we may have occasion to refer hereafter.

I have stated with some minuteness the circumstances of these two cases, on account of the importance which has been assigned to them-an importance which they will hardly retain in the history of International Law-and because we are in possession of the facts. They are in truth, however, only two out of a long list of cases, in which the British Government was called upon to inquire or to act, and all of which ought to be taken into account in forming a judgment of the general conduct of that Government. Of the remainder it will be enough to give a concise account in the order of time. I shall take this account, in great measure, from a memorandum furnished to Mr. Adams on the 3rd November, 1865, and included in the papers which have been presented to Parliament, making additions to it as regards the more important cases. As to some, indeed, it is our only source of information.

Ships which were alleged or suspected to be Fitting-out

for War.

November 16, 1862.-The Hector. Mr. Adams's application referred to the Admiralty, November 18. This was an inquiry whether the Hector was building for Her

1 The Florida flew the British flag till she was fired at, when she hauled it down, and (according to Captain Semmes's account) hoisted Confederate colours. The unlucky Captain of the Oneida said in his report that his enemy "had no flag to fight under." The discrepancy is immaterial, since she did not attempt to fight; the only rule being that a ship may not fire without showing her true colours. The Oneida fired her broadside when within a few yards of the Florida. The latter was much shattered when she gained Mobile.

Majesty's Government. On reference to the Admiralty, Chap. XIII. it was answered in the affirmative.

January 16, 1863.-The Georgiana. Referred to Treasury and Home Office, January 17. Ship said to be fitting at Liverpool for the Confederates. Mr. Adams could not divulge the authority on which this statement was made. Reports from the Customs, sent to Mr. Adams on the 18th, 19th, and 27th of January, tended to show that she was not designed for war. She sailed on the 21st January for Nassau, and on the 19th March was wrecked in attempting to enter Charleston Harbour.

March 26, 1863.-The Phantom and the Southerner. Referred to Treasury and Home Office, March 27; to the Law Officers of the Crown, June 2.

The Phantom was fitting at Liverpool, the Southerner at Stockton-on-Tees. Both proved to be intended for blockade-runners.

March 30, 1863.-The Alexandra. Referred to Treasury, Home Office, and Law Officers, March 31.

Reports were received from the Treasury on the 31st March, and from the Home Office on the 1st April. On the 4th April the Law Officers advised seizure, and she was seized on the following day.

This vessel was built at Liverpool by Miller and Co., the builders of the Florida, nominally for Fraser, Trenholm, and Co., a firm with the name of which the reader is by this time familiar. She was launched in March, and immediately taken to a public dock for completion. According to the evidence produced at the trial, she was apparently built for war, and not for commerce, but might have been used as a yacht.

At the trial, which took place before the Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer on an information by the Attorney-General, the jury found for the defendants.1

1 The evidence as to the build and fittings of the ship proved that she was strongly built, principally of teak wood; her beams and hatches, in strength and distance apart, were greater than those in

Chap. XIII An application subsequently made for a new trial, on the two grounds that the Judge had misdirected the jury, and that the verdict was against the evidence, failed, the four Judges composing the Court being equally divided. The Crown appealed against this decision to the Exchequer Chamber, but failed here also, that Court having no power to entertain the appeal. The costs and damages, fixed by arrangement at 3,7007., were paid by the Crown.

The vessel herself, having been released, was sent to Nassau, where she was again libelled in the ViceAdmiralty Court of the Bahamas, and a second time released. In consequence, as it appears, of this deten

merchant-vessels; the length and breadth of her hatches were less than the length and breadth of hatches in merchant-vessels; her bulwarks were strong and low, and her upper works were of pitch pine. At the time of her seizure workmen were employed in fitting her with stanchions for hammock-nettings; iron stanchions were fitted in the hold; her three masts were up, and had lightning conductors on each of them; she was provided with a cooking apparatus for 150 or 200 people; she had complete accommodation for men and officers; she had only stowage room sufficient for her crew, supposing them to be thirty-two men; and she was apparently built for a gun-boat, with low bulwarks, over which pivot guns could play. The Commander of Her Majesty's ship Majestic, stationed at Liverpool, stated that she was not intended for mercantile purposes; that she might be used as a yacht, and was easily convertible into a man of war. The defendants offered no evidence.

The question was left to the jury by the Chief Baron as follows:

"Was there any intention that, in the port of Liverpool, or in any other port, she should be either equipped, furnished, fitted out, or armed, with the intention of taking part in any contest? If you think the object was to equip, furnish, fit out, or arm that vessel at Liverpool, then that is a sufficient matter. But if you think the object really was to build a ship in obedience to an order and in compliance with a contract, leaving to those who bought it to make what use they thought fit of it, then it appears to me that the Foreign Enlistment Act has not in any degree been broken."

The arguments on the motion to discharge the rule are recorded in Hurlstone and Coltman's Exchequer Reports, ii, 431. (AttorneyGeneral v. Sillem.)

tion, she remained at Nassau until the end of the war, Chap. XIII. and was afterwards known as the Mary. The Government of the United States laid claim to her as public property, and an action was brought against the ship in the British Court of Admiralty.

April 8, 1863.-The Japan, Virginia, or Georgia. Referred to Home Office and Treasury, April 8.

Mr. Adams stated that a steamer called originally the Japan, and afterwards the Virginia, intended for the naval service of the Confederates, had sailed from the Clyde; that her immediate destination was believed to be Alderney; and that her armament was to meet her there in a vessel from Newhaven. Instructions were sent to the Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey to be on the watch, and, should occasion arise, to enforce the Foreign Enlistment Act; and the officers of the Customs at Alderney were directed to give their assistance. It appeared on inquiry that she was a new vessel built on the Clyde; that she had cleared on the 1st April for Point de Galle and Hong Kong in ballast, and had sailed a day or two afterwards with a crew of fortyeight men; that her framework and platings were such as are usual in commercial vessels of her class; and that the revenue officers had observed nothing in her spars or fittings to excite the suspicion that she was intended for war. All her crew signed articles for Singapore. She did not go to Alderney, but to the coast of France, where she stood on and off till she met with the Alar, a small steamer trading between Newhaven and the Channel Islands, which brought her captain and her whole armament. The two steamers, when they encountered one another, were within three or four miles of Morlaix, and they were busy for three nights in transhipping arms and stores, anchoring after dark close to the shore, and gaining an offing in the day-time. The captain then put on a uniform, had the crew piped aft, and told them he was not going to Singapore but to