Correspondence between Earl Russell and Minister Adams.
Late Northern papers contain a correspondence which has recently taken place between Earl Russell and the
United States Minister to
England,
Mr. Adams, as well as two letters from Earl Russell to Lord Lyons, on the subject of the fitting out of the
Alabama in a British port.
The first letter of this correspondence which we have is from Earl Russell to
Mr. Adams, and is in response to some statements made by the
American Minister, implying a charge of permitting ill- disposed persons to commit wanton and injurious assaults upon foreign nations with which the
British Government is at peace.
Mr. Adams intimates in there statements that on the substantial points in the case, little room seems left open for discussion.
Lord Russell takes issue with him and says ‘"that on the substantial points as stated by you, there is, on the contrary, great room left open for discussion."’--He then inquires of the
Minister what are the circumstances within the control of the
Government to which he alludes, and whether he means that her Majesty's Government were to dispense with proof and to inflict injury upon the
Queen's subjects by seizing a ship upon his (the
Minister's) mere assertion that the owners of that ship were violating the law?
He informs
Mr. Adams that the usage of that Government is to consult its own legal advisers before it proceeds to enforce a penal statute and says that if the
Minister means that her Majesty Government willfully delayed or neglected the measures by which the character of the
Alabama could have been legally ascertained, he must give a positive and complete denial to the truth of any such assertion.
The opinion of the law officers without which the
Government could not act was delivered at the Foreign Office on the 19th of July; but in the morning of that day the
Alabama, under the pretext of a pleasure excursion, escaped from
Liverpool.
To the statement of
Mr. Adams, that large supplies have been sent from
England by private speculators, for the use of the
Confederacy Lord Russell replies that both parties to the civil war have to the extent of their wants and means, induced British subjects to violate the
Queen's proclamation of the 13th of May, 1863, which forbids her subjects from affording such supplies to other party and thinks that the
English Government are entitled to complain of both parties for having thus induced her Majesty's subjects to violate that proclamation, and their complaint applies most to the
Government of the
United States because it is by that Government that by far the greatest amount of such supplies have been ordered and secured.
He says that it is notorious that large bounties have been offered and given to British subjects residing in the
United States, to engage in the war on the
Federal side; and these British subjects, acting in defiance of the laws of their country and of the
Queen's proclamation, have been encouraged by the U. S. Government so to act.
Mr. Adams, in his reply, confines himself to a repetition of the charges against the
British Government, and says that the fact that warning had been given in full season to prevent the departure of the "90," does not depend upon his statement, inasmuch as it is simply a question of dates, open to the inspection of all men. In conclusion, he says as it is probable that he will soon receive instructions from his Government in respect to the substantial points involved in the correspondence he deems it unadvisable to consume further time in the discussion of purely incidental questions.
The letters from Earl Russell to Lord Lyons relate to the same subjects embraced in the correspondence between the former and the
United States Minister.
In allusion to the statement that the crew of the
Alabama are partly or mainly composed of British subjects Earl Russell says that, If this be so, these persons are acting in violation of the
Queen's proclamation and the foreign enlistment bill.
