The public speeches of members of Parliament to their constituents appear in the papers almost every day. I think they are much more guarded than they were just after Mr. Gladstone's. The general opinion now is that he was very indiscreet. But I see no change in the current. Indeed, nothing short of a very decisive victory in Virginia will avail to check it. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. No. 249.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: It is proper for me to say that I receive from a credible source intimations that some of the escapes from the blockade are known here to have been effected by connivance and bribes to the officers commanding United States. vessels. I know not myself how to account for some of the statements current here in any other way. I feel it my duty to make this representation without meaning to implicate any person in particular, only because the prevalence of such rumors in this country do much harm to the national character. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: There is so decided an official tone in the leader in the Globe of Saturday last, that I deem it advisable to put, you in possession of it out of the ordinary course. The cabinet meeting which was called for Thursday did not take place; but there can be no doubt that the policy marked out in this publication must have been informally agreed upon for the guidance of Lord Lyons on his departure the same day. Doubtless his lordship will have himself enlightened you before this arrives. The insurrection in Greece is a new event, not unlikely to be productive of further complications in Europe. The agitation of the eastern question, as indicated in the published correspondence between the Russian and the British cabinets, is also an element of importance in estimating the probabilities of the approaching year. Possibly the rapid increase of clouds in this atmosphere may have had its effect in producing the most decided manifestation of good will to the President that has been made since I have been here. The effect here will be beneficial. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. [From the London Daily Globe of October 25.] Lord Lyons leaves England to-day to resume his post as the representative of her Majesty at Washington. We have no doubt that the ability and discretion by which his tenure of that office has been hitherto marked will continue to stand the country in good stead, and that our intercourse with the Presi dent's government will remain as peaceful and uninterrupted as the best friends. of England and America could wish. At a moment of great delicacy and difficulty Lord Lyons comported himself to the complete satisfaction of his government and the public, and should he have any similarly grave task before him, he will doubtless fulfil it with equal success. But the principal reason for our confidence in anticipating smoothness in our transatlantic relations is based upon the great improbability of any cause of political differences arising between the government at Washington and our own. We hear, indeed, of something like an inadmissible course of proceeding on the part of Commodore Wilkes in the Bahamas. As yet our information is imperfect, and we are unable positively to say how far that officer may have been trying to lay the foundation of a new chapter on international law, based on his own abnormal views, or whether he is merely exercising those rights in a somewhat vexatious manner, which are liberally accorded to belligerents by the usages of nations. But we feel sure that if Commodore Wilkes transgresses the fair hounds of warfare, his government will not sanction his acts, and as they repudiated him before, so, if there be occasion, they will repudiate him again. We have the fullest confidence that President Lincoln's government will not act in a manner to impose any unpleasant duty upon our representative at their capital. On the part of her Majesty's ministers we may feel equally confident that no course will be pursued calculated to give any just cause of offence to the still great state beyond the Atlantic. Up to this our policy as regards the northern States has been clear, wise, and unselfish, and it will continue so. If impres sions have arisen that any immediate change in our position as regards the bel ligerents was about to take place, and that Lord Lyons was to carry off in his pocket instructions likely to lead to a crisis on his landing, they have only originated in a kind of superabundant mental agility on the part of some of the public who have turned a fixed plank into a springboard, and have jumped from a minister's plain narration of a fact scarcely to be denied, to an extrava gant and unjustifiable hypothesis. Many, no doubt, believed that the meeting of the cabinet appointed for last Thursday would result in the recognition of the. southern confederacy, and those who somewhat inconsiderately press such an important step at the present moment upon the government have precedents cut and dried for our taking such a course. There is scarcely a single diplomatic step for which a precedent cannot be unearthed on both sides, and if the gov ernment were merely to follow precedent in a case of such extreme gravity, they would be miserable doctrinaires, instead of statesmen fit to judge of a great question upon its merits and its practical bearings on the vast interests involved. Pedants and enthusiasts may not look at consequences; but those who undertake to guide the councils of a great country must well weigh the advantages, and not only the probable but even the possible effects of what they ecommend. Even those who are most eager for the recognition of the southern States as a member of the family of nations, even those who form the most sanguine estimate of its effects upon our own material interests, must admit that its accomplishment will precipitate upon us a future of great gravity, which it would be almost criminal for us to seek to hasten without the strongest reason and the most solemn consideration. We do not expect to find that her Majesty's government have resolved on such a course, or that they have adopted a policy the very expediency of which is debatable, even if its accomplishment were less difficult. When we speak of its expediency we do not use the word in any narrow or unworthy sense, but as regards the practical effect of the step in prolonging or terminating the contest by which America is convulsed and Europe shocked. We have no doubt that in the interests of humanity and civilization the government of Great Britain would be glad to take any steps and assume any responsibility if there were a prospect of their being able to change this vast scene of fratricide into one of peace. But suggestions, still less interference, should only be offered where the circumstances render it probable that they would be effectual. In the present instance they would be met with difficulties at the very threshold, and might defeat their own object. While we all deplore the continuance of this struggle-while we would all make sacrifices to bring it to a termination—we must not forget the dictates of wisdom and avoid interference, at least until we have good reason to think it will not be useless or mischievous. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. No. 253.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, October 30, 1862. SIR: I have now received the missing despatches of last week (No. 360 and 361) and likewise despatches numbered from 365 to 368, inclusive. The books referred to in No. 365, of the 7th of October, have likewise arrived in safety. Immediately after the reception of your No. 360, of the 30th of September, I applied to Lord Russell for an interview, which I obtained this morning at halfpast ten o'clock. I then stated to his lordship the substance of your communication so far as was necessary to put him in a position to reply to the preliminary inquiry whether his government was disposed to negotiate about it at all. He replied in the negative. I gathered from what he said that the whole matter had been under consideration with the ministers for some time back, and that the Duke of Newcastle had had much correspondence with the authorities in the West India colonies about it. The conclusion had been that on the whole it might be the means of entangling them in some way or other with the difficulties in the United States by possible reclamations of fugitives or in some other way, or danger which they were most desirous to avoid. Hence they should not be inclined to enter upon negotiations, and least of all to adopt the form of a convention. I explained the reasons why we had wished to take this course, our object simply being to secure for those persons voluntarily disposed to emigrate (and we did not mean to include any others) the enjoyment of the rights to which they would be justly entitled as colonists. His lordship seemed so to understand it. But he remarked that some time ago an agent had been sent from the West Indies to the United States to see if sufficient inducements could be held out to the free negroes to emigrate, but he had found them so comfortable and earning so much higher a rate of wages than could be obtained at the place he came from that any transfer of them seemed out of the question. I then referred to an application that had been made to me by a private individual here by the name of Davis, styling himself the representative of much landed property in the island of Jamaica, to obtain as many as five thousand families, to whom he would be ready to assign lands if the expense of transportation could be paid for. I had answered the gentleman by referring him to my own government, and that only after he should have made his own aware of his object and ready to approve it. His lordship said he supposed that the grant of land would be only in consideration of labor. He thought it very likely that many of these people might ultimately find their way over from the United States, but he did not consider it expedient just now to make any provision about it. He expressed a little surprise that Hayti had not been preferred. I observed that efforts had been made in that direction, and some emigrants had actually gone, but the negroes were sluggish to move, and they were deterred by the difference of language and habits. I had always thought that fewer obsta cles would be found to removal to the English islands than to any other after it should once be set agoing. His lordship admitted it as very possible, at least to those of them where there was a sensible deficiency of labor. But the rate of wages, though rising, was still quite low. Under these circumstances, I remarked that it seemed of no use for me to press the point further. I should, accordingly, make report of his lordship's answer as definitively closing the matter. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: I send herewith a communication which has been received at this department from the Secretary of the Navy, giving information of a breach of international obligations by the commander of her Britannic Majesty's gunboat Bull Dog, in July last, by transporting from Nassau to Bermuda one Pegram and seven other persons, who were proceeding from this country to England to take commands in the gunboat 290, a steam war vessel then being built, manned, and equipped in, and since despatched from, a British port, and since engaged in committing depredations on American commerce on the high seas, equally in violation of the treaties existing between Great Britain and the United States, the law of nations, and the laws of Great Britain. The President desires that you will bring the subject to the notice of Earl Russell, and ask that an examination of the case may be instituted, and that such redress may be thereafter afforded to the United States as the result of the investigation shall give them a right to expect. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Welles to Mr. Seward. NAVY DEPARTMENT, October 29, 1862. SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of a communication received from Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes, commanding the West India squadron, reporting the infraction of the neutrality regulations by the commander of her Britannic Majesty's gunboat Bull Dog, in transporting officers from Nassau to Bermuda, in July last, on their way to England to take charge of vessels about to fit out there under the rebel flag. Very respectfully, GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy. Secretary of State. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Rear Admiral Wilkes to Mr. Welles. No. 4.] FLAG STEAMER WACHUSETT, SIR: I have to communicate to the department the infraction of the neutrality regulations by the commander of her Britannic Majesty's gunboat Bull Dog, in transporting Captain Pegram and seven officers from Nassau to Bermuda, in July last, on their way to England to take charge of the 290, or other vessels about to fit out there under the secesh flag, and that I have but little doubt that the officials, both at Nassau and Bermuda, were aware of and assented to the violation. This information I have from most reliable authority-those who knew Captain Pegram and Lieutenant Bennett well, and witnessed their arrival at Bermuda and embarcation on board the mail packet for Halifax. They staid but a few hours at Bermuda. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, CHARLES WILKES, Hon. GIDEON Welles, Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C. No. 385.1 Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 3, 1862. SIR: The Arabia has not yet arrived at her destination, and her mails can hardly be expected before the hour appointed for the departure of this commu nication. The military transactions which I have to relate are not striking, although they are not unimportant. The navy have reduced to occupation two new positions on the southern coast-Sabine Pass and Galveston. The blockading fleet has captured three of the steamers which were fitted out in England and despatched from British ports with arms and other supplies from the insurgents. The Spanish authorities in Cuba make reclamation (justly if the facts sustain it) for a violation of their sovereignty in the driving ashore of and destruction of a British steamer, the Blanche, upon that island loaded with cotton. But on the other hand statements are made which show that the so-called Blanche was none other than the insurgent steamer General Rusk, freighted with four hundred slaves carried from Texas to Mulata, and that her loss was an act of selfdestruction. General McClellan's army has crossed into Virginia, and its advance has already had some skirmishing with the insurgents in the rear of Leesburg, which is again reoccupied by the national forces. You will notice the statements of the press concerning an emeute of the colored population in the island of Saint Vincent. It is now said to have not merely a social but even a political signification. There are rumors, I know not how accurate, of uneasiness among the slaves in Cuba. The question becomes a serious one whether the political sympathies with slavery in the United States, which have been so universally cherished in Great Britain, are producing discontents among the whole African population, the free as well as the enslaved, in the West Indies. It is always dangerous for any people to abet treason in another country, and especially dangerous to force revolution in opposition to the progress of humanity. |