The case of the Grand Admiral is another frequently alluded to by the British press, and it is only necessary to say that this ship was ordered by the Russian government before the outbreak of hostilities; that its construction was suspended during the whole of the war; and that she did not sail from this country until 1859, three years after peace was declared. (See letter of W. II. Webb, Esq., published by N. Y. Chamb. of Com., 1863.)

The purchase and clearance of the steamship "United States" is now being made use of by those English journals which are conducted in the interest of the rebellion, to justify, by an American precedent, the piratical enterprises in which British merchants are now engaged. In this, as in all the other cases, an American may well say:

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Mark, now, how plain a tale shall put you down."

In 1848, an attempt was made to consolidate the German people into one government. The new government sent commissioners to this country to purchase some steam war vessels. The commissioners addressed our government, openly through the German minister, and the President, in courtesy, granted the services of some of our naval officers to aid in the selection, and the use of our navy-yard, for the refitting of the steamer in question. While this was going on, the government at Washington were informed that the purchasers of this steamer were in some way parties to a petty controversy, then progressing, under the name of the Schleswig Holstein war. Upon receipt of this information, all facilities for finishing the vessel were at once withdrawn, and it was only after a long negotiation that she was permitted to sail, without arms, with just men enough to take her across the Atlantic; and only after having given bonds in $900,000 that she should never be used against any nation with whom we were at peace. She reached Liverpool, and there remained until peace was de

Passmore, who swore he had been engaged by Capt. Butcher to sail in the "290," with the express understanding that she was going to fight for the "government of the Confederate States of America." That he had joined the vessel in Messrs. Laird & Co.'s yard at Birkenhead, and remained on her several days. That he found about thirty old men-of-war's men on board, among whom it was "well known that she was going out as a privateer for the Confederate government to act against the United States, under a commission from Mr. Jefferson Davis." Yet, this affidavit, proving, prima facie, as it does the character of the vessel, was, with others sustaining it, in the hands of English officials for at least ten day before they were able to determine whether they should take the precaution of holding the vessel to abide the event of examination. Nor has any action yet been taken against Capt. Butcaer for a criminal infringement of the 2d section of 59 Geo. III., which, under severe penalties, forbids the hiring or enlisting any man to serve against a friendly nation.

The distinguishing features of this case do not require to be pointed out.

clared, and, shortly after, was changed into a passenger-ship, and plied between this port and Galway, as the “Indian Empire." (Letter of Leopold Bierwith, Esq., pub. by N. Y. Chamb. of Com., 1863.)

Thus stands the record of American neutrality. History may be fairly challenged to show another instance of such magnanimity, consistency, and fairness.

Should we examine thoroughly the record of Great Britain upon this matter of maritime neutrality, it would be found entirely consistent on one point-"Britannia rules the waves." To express the probable reasons for whatever inconsistencies on other points history might discover, would necessitate harsh allusions to that national greed and arrogance which the traditions of mankind have ascribed to the insular kingdom. And since it is not the purpose of this discussion to revive memories of past misconduct, but instead, to discover the true, legal, and moral obligations which bind nations as they may be derived from instances of past good conduct, it will be necessary to cite but two cases-and those the most notable-in which Great Britain has been called upon to declare her understanding of what true neutrality consists in. It will be seen that in one case she demands, and in the other performs, neutrality.

The first instance has special relation to rebellion, being the protest of England against the clandestine assistance which France permitted her citizens to give the revolted American colonies, or rather her statement of reasons justifying war upon France for that cause. The written statement of these just grounds of war is found in the celebrated Memoire Justificatif, understood. to have been prepared for the king by the historian. Gibbon. But for the proper names and dates there given, one might suppose that Mr. Gibbon, with prophetic foresight, had prepared this document for presentation by Mr. Adams to the English government of the present day.*

*The following extracts are made from the Memoire Justificatif, which may be found printed in full in the British Annual Register for 1779, vol. xxii., p. 404. "An enterprise so vain and so difficult as that of hiding from the eyes of Great Britain and of all Europe the proceedings of a commercial company associated for furnishing the Americans with whatever could nourish and maintain the fire of a revolt, was not attempted. The informed public named the chief of the enterprise, wh se house was established at Paris; his correspondents at Dunkirk, Nantz, and Bordeaux, were equally known. The immense magazines which they formed, and which they replenished every day, were laden in ships that they built or bought, and they scarcely dissembled their objects or the place of their destination. These vessels commonly took false clearances for the French islands in America, but the commodities which composed their cargoes were sufficient before the time of their

The instance selected to show to what length Great Britain feels herself bound to go in the performance of neutral obligations relates to the conflict between Donna Maria and Don Miguel for the crown of Portugal. In 1827, Don Pedro, having retained to himself the empire of the Brazils, formally renounced the throne of Portugal in favor of his daughter, Donna Maria, and appointed his brother, Don Miguel, regent of the kingdom. Donna Maria was recognized by Great Britain and all the great powers as the lawful sovereign of Portugal. In. 1828, however, Don Miguel induced a revolt, procured himsailing to discover the fraud and artifice. These suspicions were quickly confirmed by the course they held, and at the end of a few weeks it was not surprising to hear they had fallen into the hands of the king's officers, cruising in the American seas, who took them even within sight of the coasts of the revolted colonies. This vigilance was but too well justified by the conduct of those who had the luck or cunning. to escape it, since they approached America only to deliver to the rebels the arms and ammunition which they had taken on board for their service. The marks of these facts, which could be considered only as manifest breaches of the faith of treaties, multiplied continually, and the diligence of the king's ambassador to communicate his complaint and proofs to the court of Versailles, did not leave him the shameful and humiliating resource of appearing ignorant of what was carried on and daily repeated in the very heart of the country. He pointed out the names, number, and quality of the ships that the commercial agents of America had fitted out in the ports of France, to carry to the rebels arms, warlike stores, and even French officers who had engaged in the service of the revolted colonies. The dates, places, and persons, were always specified with a precision that afforded the ministers of his most Christian majesty the greatest facility of being assured of these reports and of stopping in time the progress of these illicit armaments. Among a crowd of examples which accuse the court of Versailles of want of attention to fulfil the conditions of peace, or rather its constant attention to nourish fear and discord, it is impossible to enumerate them all-it is very difficult to select the most striking objects.

"Nine large ships, fitted out and freighted by the Sieur de Beaumarchais and his partners, in the month of January, 1777, are not confounded with the Amphitrite, which carried about the same time a great quantity of ammunition and thirty French officers, who passed with impunity into the service of the rebels. Every month, almost every day, furnished new subjects of complaint; and a short memorial that Viscount Stormont, the king's ambassador, communicated to the Count de Vergennes in the month of November in the same year, will give a just but very. imperfect idea of the wrongs which Britain had so often sustained.

"There is a sixty-gun ship at Rockport, and an East India ship, pierced for sixty guns, at L'Orient. These two ships are destined for the service of the rebels. They are laden with different merchandize, and freighted by Messrs. Cleaumont, Holken & Lebatier. The ship L'Heureux sailed from Marseilles the 26th of September under another name; she goes straight to New Hampshire, though it is pretended she is bound to the French Islands. They have been permitted to take on board three thousand muskets and twenty-five thousand pounds of sulphur-a merchandize as necessary to the Americans as useless to the islands. This ship is commanded by M. Lundi, a French officer of distinction, formerly lieutenant to M. de Bouganville. L'Hippopotame, belonging to the Sieur Beaumarchais, will have on board four thousand muskets and many warlike stores for the use of the rebels. There are about fifty French ships laden with ammunition for the use of the rebels, preparing to sail to North America. They will go from Nantz, L'Orient, St. Malo, Havre, Bordeaux, Bayonne, and other different ports. These are the names of some of the persons principally interested, M. Cleaumont, M. Menton," &c., &c.

"In this kingdom, where the will of the prince meets with no obstacle, succors so considerable, so public, so long supported, in fine, so necessary to maintain the war in America, show clearly enough the most secret intentions of the most Christian king's ministers. But they still carried further their forgetfulness or contempt of the most solemn engagements, and it was not without their permission that an un

self to be proclaimed king, and succeeded in expelling the queen and her friends from most of her dominions. Terceira, one of the Azore Islands, remained faithful to her and in her possession. The Brazilian envoy at London applied to the British government for assistance, on the ground that the queen was the legitimate sovereign and Don Miguel a usurper. These facts were admitted by Lord Aberdeen, who refused assistance, however, assigning as the reason that, as England could not take notice of the merits of the domestic quarrels of another country, she must therefore conduct herself between the two according to the strict rule of duty governing neutral nations. About this time a number of Portuguese refugees arrived in England and took up their residence in Portsmouth. It was suspected (I quote the language of Phillimore) that they were

derhand and dangerous war issued from the ports of France under the deceitful mask of peace and the pretended flag of the American colonies, The favorable reception that their agents found with the ministers of the court of Versailles, quickly encouraged them to form and execute the audacious project of establishing a place of arms in the country which had served them for an asylum. They had brought with them. or knew how to fabricate, letters of marque in the name of the American Congress, who had the impudence to usurp all the rights of sovereignty. The partnership, whose interested views easily embarked in all their designs, fitted out ships that they had either built or purchased. They armed them to cruise in the European seas; nay, even on the coasts of Great Britain. To save appearances, the captains of those corsairs hoisted the pretended American flag, but their crews were always composed of a great number of Frenchmen, who entered with impunity under the very eyes of their governors and the officers of the maritime provinces. And numerous swarms of these corsairs, animated by a spirit of rapine, sailed from the ports of France, and after cruising in the British seas, re-entered or took shelter in the same ports. *

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"To the first representation of the king's ambassadors upon the subject of the privateers which were fitted out in the ports of France under American colors, the ministers of his most Christian majesty replied, with expressions of surprise and indignation, and by a positive declaration that attempts so contrary to the faith of treaties and the public tranquillity should never be suffered. The train of events, of which a small number have been shown, soon manifested the inconstancy, or rather the falsehood, of the court of Versailles; and the king's ambassador was ordered to represent to the French ministers the serious but inevitable consequences of their policy. He fulfilled his commission with all the consideration due to a respectable power, the preservation of whose friendship was desired, but with a friendship worthy of a sovereign, and a nation little accustomed to do or to suffer injustice. The court of Versailles was called upon to explain its conduct and intentions without delay or evasion, and the king proposed to it the alternative of peace or war. France chose peace, in order to wound her enemy more surely and secretly, without having anything to dread from her justice. She severely condemned those succors and those armaments, that the principles of public equity would not permit her to justify. She declared to the king's ambassador that she was resolved to banish the American corsairs immediately from all the ports of France, never to return again; and that she would take, in future, the most rigorous precautions to prevent the sale of prizes taken from the subjects of Great Britain. The orders given to that effect astonished the partisans of the rebels, and seemed to check the progress of the evil; but subjects of complaint sprung up again daily; and the manner in which these orders were first eluded, then violated, and at length entirely forgotten by the merchants, privateers, nay, even by the royal officers, were not excusable by the protestations of friendship, with which the court of Versailles accompanied those infractions of peace, until the very moment that the treaty of alliance, which it had signed with the agents of the revolted American colonies, was announced by the French ambassador in London."

meditating to fit out some expedition from these ports against Don Miguel, and the government, holding that to permit this would be a breach of neutrality, informed the Brazilian minister that it would allow no such design to be carried on in British harbors, and that, for security's sake, the refugees must remove farther from the coast. The envoy stated that those troops were about to be conveyed to Brazil, and accordingly four vessels, having on board six hundred and twenty-five unarmed men, sailed from Plymouth. The government suspected that the true design was to land these troops on Terceira, and, having given them notice before they sailed that any such attempt would be resisted, dispatched a fleet of armed vessels to watch and prevent a landing. The expedition appeared off Terceira, and, being perceived by the English captain, was fired into and stopped, one man being killed. The Portuguese commander insisted upon his right to disembark upon the loyal territory of his sovereign, but being unarmed was unable to enforce his right, and his whole expedition was conducted several hundred miles to sea and there left, the English fleet returning to stand guard at the island. This act caused great excitement in England, and in Parliament the questions of international law involved were discussed with much ability. The government defended itself on the ground "that the refugees had fitted out a warlike armament in a British port; that the armament, having been equipped under the disguise of going to Brazil, had not been stopped before sailing; and that they were therefore bound, by the duty of neutrality, to prevent by force an armament so equipped from disembarking, even in the Queen of Portugal's dominions." The government was supported by a majority in both houses of Parliament. (Br. Annual Register for 1829; 3 Philli., 229.)

Thus we have, by a fair examination of the customary law of nations, and the general conduct thereunder of England and America respectively, arrived at a point from which we may look about us and obtain a tolerably clear view of the legal conclusions and consequences which follow and belong to the unneutral acts of permitting the initial departure, the continued. depredations, subsequent return, refitting, and departure of the Alabama and Florida from British ports. From this general view we perceive, as a matter of law, that neutrals are bound at all hazards to prevent, among other things, the fitting out in their