IS THE ALABAMA A BRITISH PIRATE? 19 all interference by our people in the disturbances then existing in Canada. In an official letter, Mr. Webster says: “ The President directs me to say that it is his fixed resolution that all such disturbers of the public peace and violators of the laws of their country shall be brought to exemplary punishment." (Webster’s Works, vol. 6, p. 260.) In the same volume Mr. Webster refers to the fixed American doctrine on this subject, especially the practice of directing out- officers to watch for infringements of neutrality, without waiting for information, and cites the instructions given our army during the war for Texan independence. (Ibid. p. 452.) The next occasion on which Great Britain, by taking a belligerent attitude, forced upon us the embarrassment and annoyance of the neutral character, was during the war with Russia, in 1854-6. It has been very loosely charged that, at that time, armaments for Russia were permitted to go on here, and that some war-vessels intended for that nation escaped. The best investigation which I have been able to give to that period fails to discover any vessel which can be traced to the Russians, or which ever caused, or attempted to cause, damage to'the other belligerents. During that war, much excitement was caused in England by the announcement that the barque Maury, of New York, belonging to a highly respectable mercantile firm (the owners of the Jacob Bell, lately burned by the Florida), had been detected in shipping arms to the enemy, and had been seized. The real truth about that matter seems never yet to have reached the British public. The facts were, that the barque was openly advertised for China, and was loading on freight. She was seized on the application of the British consul, sustained by very suspicious affidavits. An examination of her cargo, &c., proved her innocence, and the consul made a public apology in the columns of the New York Herald of October 24, 1855, for the seizure.* The owners did not let the matter rest, however, but procured an investi- * The following letter will show the motives and promptness with which our government then acted: Attorney-General’s Office, 22<Z October, 1855. Sir :—I have received your letter of the 19th instant, communicating the result of inquiry regarding the barque “ Maury.” The allegation against that vessel was improbable on its face ; but, determined as the President is not to suffer any of the belligerent powers to trespass on (he neutral rights of the United States, it was deemed proper to investigate the case, out of re-
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