The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-16 00:00:00

Yesterday was issued " Correspondence respect-
ing Instructions given to Naval Officers of the
United States in regard to Neutral Vessels and
Mails ;" also a correspondence between Mr. Adams
and Earl Russell on the subject of neutral rights
and duties, arising from the incident of the seizure
of the British steamer Labuan at Matamoras, the
case of which vessel is still under discussion.

Mr. Adams, in the course of this correspondence,
asked the British Government to interfere against
the " unlawfnl trade" carried on by British subjects,
representing that great embarrassment had arisen
to the Federal Government by reason of it, and that
the seizure of the Labuan was the result of that
embarrassment. On the 10th of May, 1862, Earl
Russell wrote :

EARL RUSSELL TO MR. ADAMS.
Foreign-office, May 10, 1862.
Sir,—ln the letter I had the honour to receive
from you yesterday, you appear to me to have con-
founded two things totally distinct. The Foreign
Eulistment Act is intended to prevent the subjects
of the Crown from going to war when the Sove-
reign is not at war. Thus private persons are pro-
hibited from fitting out a ship of war in our ports,
or from enlisting in the service of a foreign state at
war with another state, or in the service of insur-

gents against a foreign sovereign or state. In
these cases the persons so acting would carry on
war, and thus engage the name of their S.ivereiga
_ . .

and of their nation in belligerent operations. But
owners and masters of merchant ships carrying war-
like stores do nothing of the kind. If captured for
breaking a blockade, or carrying contraband of war

to the enemy of the captor, they submit to capture,
are tried, and 'condemned to lose their cargo. This

is th 3 penalty which the law of nations has affixed

to such an offence, and in calling upon her Majesty's
Government to prohibit such adventures, you in
effect call upon her Majesty's Government to do that
which it belongs to the cruisers and the courts of

the United States to do for themselves. There can

be only one plea for asking Great Britain thus
to interpose. That plea is, that the blockade is in
reality ineffective, and that merchant ships can

enter with impunity the blockaded ports. But this
is a plea which I presume you will not urge. Her
Majesty's Government have considered the blockade

as an t ffdctive blockade, and have submitted to all
its inconveniences as such. They can only hope that
if resistance should prove to be hopeless, the Con-
federate States will not continue the struggle ; and
that if, on the other hand, the restoration of the
Union should appear to be impossible, the work of
devastation now going on may cease.

her Majesty's Government can only desire the
prosperity of the inhabitants of the Uuited States,

whatever may be the event of the present civil war.

--I am, &c., (signed) - RUSSELL.
Mr. Adams replied, on May 12, in a letter which
concludes as follows :

I pray your lordship's pardon if I submit
that you appear to have entirely overlooked a
plea which I am confident enough to imagine

of no inconsiderable weight.

That plea is,

that the kingdom of Great Britain endeavour,
in spirit as well as in the letter, to preserve the prin-
ciple of neutrality, if not of friendship, towards a
foreign nation in amity with it, to which it has
pledged itself. The precise mode in which that shall
be done it does not presume to prescribe. That the
toleration of such conduct in subjects of Great Bri-
tain as I have had the pain heretofore to expose is .
stalely a violation of that neutrality, is justly to be
interred from the very language of her Majesty's
proclamation. For it is therein declared that pre-
cisely such acts of theirs as I have been compelled
here to complain of, are done " in derogation of their
duty to her as a neutral sovereign, and incur her
high displeasure." If such, then, be the true cha-
racter of the proceedings to which I have hitherto
called your lordship's attention, they surely merit
something more of notice from her Majesty's mini-
sters than an intimation that they will be suffered
co pass unreproved unless the punishment shall be
inflicted by the nation whom they are designed to
injure. The object of the government of the United
States has not been to relieve itself of the duty of
vigila,ce to capture offenders against the law; it
las rather been to avoid the necessity of applying
additional stringent measures for their own secu-
ity against British subjects found to be engaged
n linen illicit enterprises, made imperative by the
onviction that no preventive co-operatics what-
ever can be expected from her Majesty's Govern-
tient ; it has rather been to avoid the risk of eon.-
-ounding the innocent with the guilty, because all
lappen to be involved in a general suspicion ; and
dst►37, it has rather been to remove at as early a day
.s may be consistently with its own safety the
estrictions on the trade with foreign countries
vhich these evil doers are labouring with so mutt
udustry to force it to protract. Your lordship
eaves me little hope of any co operation of her
Majesty's Government to these ends. Nevertheless,
I. trust I may be permitted to indulge the belie
hat the time is not now far distant when the diffy
Lailties thus interposed id the way of its progress
will have been so tar remeved by its own unassisted
fiction as to relieve both countries from the painful
necessity of further continuing the discoesion.---
Renewing, &c.,
(Signed) CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
Earl Russell's reply closes the correspondence
EARL itIISS ELL TO MR. ADAMS.

Foreign-office, May 17, 1862.
Sir,-1 do not wish to prolong this correspond"
ence, and shall only make one remark in answer to
your last letter. If the British Gov, rnment, by
virtue of the prerogative of the crown, or by
•tuthority of Parliament, had prohibited, and could
have prevented, the conveyance in Britiah met'
chant-ships of arms and ammuuition to the Con-
federate States, and had allowed the transport of
such contraband of war to New York and to other
Federal ports, her Majesty's Government would
nave departed from the neutral position they have
assumed and maintained. It, on the other hand,
her Majesty's Government had prohibited, Od
could have prevented the transport of arms u°'
ammunition to both the contending parties, Old
would have deprived the United States of a greys
part of the means by which they have carried on
the war. The arms and ammunition received fr°l33
Great Britain, as well as from other neutral collo'
tries, have enabled the United States to fit out the
formidable armies now engaged in carrying on the
war against the. Southern States ; while by meal°
of the blockade established by the Federal 0°:,
vernment the Southern States have been deprive'
of similar advantages. Tha impartial observance
of neutral obligations by her Majesty's Governmel3
has thus been exceedingly advantageous to ti)6
cause of the more powerful of the two contendi°6
parties.—l am, &c., -