A Yankee forgery.
The English journals have recently published a document, gotten up by some unprincipled Yankee, which purports to be an official report from
Secretary Mallory, of the Navy Department, to the
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The name of "
Babcock" is substituted for that of
Hon. Thos.
S
Bocock, and the report gives in detail the operations of our Navy since its organization.
It also states that, in accordance with the order of the
President, agents had been dispatched to
England and
France, with orders to contract for eight iron-clad vessels, suitable for ocean service, and calculated to resist the ordinary armament of the wooden vessels of the enemy.
For five of these vessels contracts were made in
England, and for the other three in
France.
The report goes on further to allege that, owing to the unfriendly construction of her neutrality laws, the
Government of
England stationed several war vessels at the mouth of the
Mersey, and prevented their departure when completed, and that subsequently they were seized by the
British Government.
The vessels building in
France had also been subjected to many official visitations, and instructions had been given to cease operations upon them.
The bogus report proceeds to give an account of a plan for the relief of our prisoners on
Johnston's Island, the failure of which is attributed to information furnished by the
British authorities in
Canada.
Upon the appearance of this miserable forgery in the
English journals,
Commander M. F. Maury denounced it over his own signature in the London
Times, but a United States journal, in commenting on his letter, reaffirms the authenticity of the report.
Under these circumstances,
Mr. Mallory addressed a note to the
Secretary of State, in which he pronounced the report, from beginning to end, a forgery.
The document, however, assumed additional importance in
Europe, from the fact that the
English Attorney General, in a speech in the House of Commons, in defence of the course of the Ministry on the subject of
Laird's rams, quoted it as authentic.
On
Mr. Benjamin's attention being called to the subject by
Mr. Mallory, he wrote a letter to
Mr. Slidell, our
Commissioner at
Paris, directing him to make an official publication explaining that the report was a gross fabrication.
