harbour till the end of January or the beginning of Chap. XV. February, 1864. During much of this time (from 28th October, 1863, to 15th February, 1864) the Georgia

Bermuda, from which port she had come. The fact is, that as she is a good sailing vessel, and has crossed the Atlantic, as I believe, principally by that means, neither coal nor machinery is necessary to her safety, although a great convenience, doubtless, in enabling her to prey upon our commerce. It may well be doubted whether the rule which limits aid in such cases, to what is called for by necessity and humanity, applies at all to her case."-Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward, 25th August, 1863.

"I have to-day had a conversation with M. Drouyn de l'Huys upon the subject. He says they are much annoyed that the Florida should have come into a French port. But having recognized the South as belligerents, they can only deal with the vessel as they would deal with one of our ships-of-war under like circumstances. They will give her so much aid as may be essential to her navigation, though they will not provide her with anything for war. I stated that she was a good sailer, and really needed nothing in the shape of repairs to machinery, &c., to enable her to navigate. He said that if she were deprived of her machinery, she was pro tanto disabled, crippled, and liable, like a duck with its wings cut, to be at once caught by our steamers. He said it would be no fair answer to say the duck had legs, and could walk or swim. But he said that, in addition to this, the officers of the port had reported to the Government that the vessel was leaking badly; that she made water at so much per hour (given the measurement), and unless repaired she would sink; that this fact, coming from their own officers, he must receive as true. They said nothing, however, about her copper being damaged, but reported that she needed calking and tarring, if I understood the French word rightly. I then asked him if he understood that the rule in such cases required or justified the grant of a Government dock or basin for such repairs, especially to a vessel like this, fresh from her destructive work in the Channel; remarking that, as she waited no judicial condemnation of her prizes, when repaired in this Government dock, she would be just at hand to burn other American ships entering or leaving Havre and other French ports. He said where there was no mere commercial dock, as at Brest, it was customary to grant the use of any accommodations there to all vessels in distress, upon the payment of certain known and fixed rates; that they must deal with this vessel as they would with one of own ships, or the ships of any other nation, and that to all such these accommodations would be granted at once."-The same to the same, 3rd September, 1863.

"On the 19th instant I received a note from M. Drouyn de l'Huys requesting to see me on the next day (yesterday) in reference to certain

Chap. XV. which had, as we have seen, armed herself, by the instrumentality of an English steamer, in French waters, and had since been cruising in the South African seas—

matters of business. I, of course, attended at the Foreign Office at the time named. He then informed me that it had been reported to him that the United States' steam-ship Kearsarge, Captain Winslow, now in the port of Brest, kept her steam constantly up with the view, as supposed, of instantly following and catching, if possible, the Florida upon her leaving that port; and that France, having resolved to treat this vessel as a regularly commissioned ship-of-war, could not and would not permit this to be done. He said that the rule which requires that the vessel first leaving shall have twenty-four hours the start must be applied. To avoid the difficulty which he said must inevitably follow a disregard of this rule by Captain Winslow, he requested me to communicate to him the determination of this Government, and apprise him of the necessity of complying with the rule. Inasmuch as nothing was to be gained by inviting the application of force, and increased difficulties might follow that course, I have communicated to Captain Winslow the letter of which I herewith send you a copy.

"M. Drouyn de l'Huys furthermore informed me that this Government, after much conference (and, I think, some hesitation), had concluded not to issue an order prohibiting an accession to the crew of the Florida while in port, inasmuch as such accession was necessary to her navigation. They had made inquiries, it would seem, and said they had ascertained that the seventy or seventy-five men discharged after she came into Brest were discharged because the period for which they had shipped had expired. He said, furthermore, that it was reported to him that the Kearsarge had likewise applied for some sailors and a pilot in that port, as well as for coal and leave to make repairs, all of which had been, and would be, if more were needed, cheerfully granted.

"I told him I was quite confident the Kearsarge had made no attempt to ship a crew there, and that as respects a pilot, that stood on ground peculiar to itself, and had no reference to the general principle.

"The determination which has been reached by the French authorities to allow the shipment of a crew, or so large a portion of one, on board of the Florida while lying in their port, is, I think, wrong, even supposing that vessel a regularly commissioned ship-ofwar. I told M. Drouyn de l'Huys that, looking at it as a mere lawyer, and clear of prejudices which my official position might create, I thought this determination an error. He said, however, that in the conference they had reached that conclusion unanimously, although a majority of the Ministry considering the question were lawyers."— The same to the same, 21st October, 1863.

was in the neighbouring port of Cherbourg. Both the Chap. XV. Confederate vessels left the shelter of French waters about the same time, the Kearsarge (which had been watching them) being absent from her station. The Georgia, in May 1864, found her way into Liverpool, where she was dismantled and sold. The Florida ended her career in October 1864, at Bahia, where she was attacked, whilst lying under the guns of a Brazilian battery and under the broadside of the guard-ship, by the United States' steamer Wachusetts. The attack was made before daybreak, most of the Florida's crew being ashore on leave; the vessel was easily overpowered, towed out to sea by the Wachusetts, and brought into Hampton Roads. Here she went to the bottom, under circumstances which are thus stated by Mr. Seward in an official communication to the Brazilian Chargé

d'Affaires :

"While awaiting the representations of the Brazilian Government, on the 28th November, she sank, owing to a leak which could not be seasonably stopped. The leak was at first represented to have been caused, or at least increased, by collision with a war transport. Orders were immediately given to ascertain the manner and circumstances of the occurrence. It seemed to affect the army and navy. A naval court of inquiry and also a military court of inquiry were charged with the investigation. The naval court has submitted its report, and a copy thereof is herewith communicated. The military court is yet engaged. So soon as its labours shall have ended, the result will be made known to your Government. In the meantime it is assumed that the loss of the Florida was in consequence of some unforeseen accident, which casts no responsibility on the Government of the United States."

The restitution of the ship having thus become impossible, the President expressed his regret that the sovereignty of Brazil had been violated, dismissed the Consul at Bahia, who had advised the offence, and sent the commander of the Wachusetts before a courtmartial.

The Shenandoah, which hoisted her flag at Porto Santo in October 1864 under the circumstances already

Chap. XV. described, put in at Melbourne in January 1865, and obtained permission to remain a few days for necessary repairs. The permission to repair was soon afterwards suspended, when information reached the Governor that she had men on board who had joined her at the port. Her commander denied this, but had subsequently to admit it, declaring at the same time that they were there without his knowledge, and in concealment, and had been turned out as soon as discovered. The four sailors referred to had in fact come ashore, and three of them were committed for trial. The Shenandoah contrived, however, when she sailed in February, to carry away a considerable number of men who had come on board during the previous night in the character of "stowaways"-that is, as persons who secrete themselves in the hold of a ship before she leaves port-and of whose presence Captain Waddell probably remained in convenient ignorance till they were fairly at sea, when they were all put upon the ship's books. She proceeded to the Arctic Ocean, where she continued to be employed in capturing and destroying American whalers until her commander learnt, late in the summer, that the Confederate Government had ceased to exist, and that the war was at an end. He then returned unmolested to Liverpool, where he arrived on the 6th November.2

1 See Affidavit of W. A. Temple, sent by Mr. Adams to the Earl of Clarendon, 28th December, 1865.

2 Captain Waddell (who appears to have been an officer of great self-possession) notified his arrival to the Government in the following letter to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs:

"My Lord,

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Shenandoah,' November 6, 1865. "I have the honour to announce to your Lordship my arrival in the waters of the Mersey with this vessel, lately a ship-of-war under my command, belonging to the Confederate States of America.

"The singular position in which I find myself placed, and the absence of all precedents on the subject, will, I trust, induce your Lordship to pardon a hasty reference to a few facts connected with the cruise lately made by this ship.

"I commissioned the ship in October 1864, under orders from the

The vessel was taken in charge by the commanding Chap. XV. officer of Her Majesty's ship Donegal, and, on the request of the American Government, was handed over to the American Consul.

The Shenandoah and her proceedings became the subject of an animated correspondence between the two Governments, which was prolonged even after her surrender. The American Government continued to insist that she had never ceased to be an English ship, that the hostilities which had been committed on board of her were therefore acts of piracy, that she ought not to have been admitted into the harbour of Melbourne, and that Captain Waddell and his crew ought to have been prosecuted as pirates. The Government of Great Britain continued to maintain that these views were opposed either to universally acknowledged principles

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Naval Department of the Confederate States; and, in pursuance of the same, commenced actively cruising against the enemy's commerce. My orders directed me to visit certain seas in preference to others; in obedience thereto I found myself in May, June, and July of this year in the Okhotsk Sea and Arctic Ocean. Both places, if not quite isolated, are still so far removed from the ordinary channels of commerce that months would elapse before any news could reach there as to the progress or termination of the American war. In consequence of this awkward circumstance I was engaged in the Arctic Ocean in acts of war as late as the 28th day of June, in ignorance of the serious reverses sustained by our arms in the field, and the obliteration of the Government under whose authority I had been acting.

"This intelligence I received for the first time on communicating at sea, on the 2nd of August, with the British barque Barracouta, of Liverpool, fourteen days from San Francisco. Your Lordship can imagine my surprise at the receipt of such intelligence, and I would have given to it little consideration if an Englishman's opinion did not confirm the war news, though from an enemy's port. I desisted instantly from further acts of war, and determined to suspend further action until I had communicated with an European port, where I would learn if that intelligence were true. It would not have been intelligent in me to convey this vessel to an American port for surrender simply because the master of the Barracouta had said the war was ended.' I was in an embarrassing position; I diligently examined all the law writers at my command, searching a precedent