The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-29 00:00:00

Belligerent Bights.

The following is the latest despatch on the sub-
ject of the cessation of belligerent rights, addressed
by the Foreign Office to the Am erican Government :

EARL RUSSELL TO SIR F. BRUCE.

"Foreign Office, July 6, 1865.

" have received and laid before the Queen
your despatch of the 19th June, with a copy of Mr.
Seward's note on the subject of the cessation of
belligerent rights.
" Her Majesty's Government are sorry to find
that the reservations and explanations which accom-
panied the orders of the 2d of June are deemed un-
acceptable by the Government of the United States.
" ller Majesty's Government did not expect, in-
deed, that the United States, after the course they
have hitherto taken, would now acknowledge that
the original concession of belligerent rights was
either necessary or just, or sanctioned by the law

of nations.
" Her Majesty's Government, however, having,
in common with all the maritime powers of Europe,
acknowledged the belligerent rights of blockade on
the part of the United States, and having recognised
the existence of a belligerent against whom that
right was exercised in conformity, as they are con-
vinced, with the law of nations and the practice of
centuries, could not be expected on their part to
shrink from the consequences of the course they had
deliberately adopted. Tier Majesty's Government,
therefore, considered that a due regard for national
faith and honour required that any Confederate
vessel of war called upon to departfrom her Majesty's
ports, harbours, or waters should have the benefit
of the 24 hours' rule. But you will observe to Mr.
Seward that this rule is then to be enforced for the
last time.

" Consequently no Confederate vessel of war,
taking advantage of this rule, could ever again have
the benefit of it.

" Her Majesty's Government have, in a like spirit,
allowed that vessels lying in her Majesty's harbours
or waters, or which, during the space of a month,
shall come into these harbours or waters, shall
be permitted to disarm and assume a peaceful cha-
racter. Otherwise vessels at sea, ignorant of the
termination of the war, might be driven with-
out coals or sails to perish on the neighbouring
rocks, or to founder at sea. Such inhospitality
would not become the character of the nation for
good faith and honour, or for humanity.
" But you will observe that her Majesty's Go-
vernment have instructed their authorities in distant
ports distinctly to apprize the commander of any
such Confederate vessel that he is to expect no
further protection from her Majesty's Government,
except such as he may be entitled to in the ordinary
course of the Administration of the law in time of
peace. The 24 hours' rule would not be applicable
to such case.

The Government of the United States will, there-
fore, be entitled to maintain that such vessels are
forfeited, and ought to be delivered to the United
States upon reasonable applications in such cases
made. Only such applications must be made good
in a British court of law if the vessel is found in
British waters.

"In the case of a vessel captured at sea by a
naval force of the United States, under whatever
flag, the claim ought to be made good in a court of
law of the United States.

" Her Majesty's Government will further illus-
trate their views on this head by the enclosures to
this dispatch.
" Part of these enclosures consist of dispatches to
and from Paris. Her Majesty's Government can
never admit that in the presence of a great war
which interrupted and destroyed a friendly and
useful commerce extending along 3,000 miles of the
American coast—a war reducing great numbers of
industrious families of both nations to poverty, and
afflicting a whole continent—the governments of
England and France should not, as far as possible,
act in concert, in pursuance, not of any formal en-
gagement, but of a mutual understanding.
"Her Majesty's Government, however, are grati-
fied to find that the United States no longer.claim
the belligerent right to search British vessels, and
that the normal relations of the two countries are
practically returned to the condition in which they
stood before the civil war.
Her Majesty's Government trust that these ex-
planations founded upon views which her Majesty's
Government have maintained in a spirit of just
neutrality, will prove to be favourable to the estab-
lishment of a lasting and intimate friendship be-
tween the two nations.—l am, &c.,
(Signed)

" RUSSELL."

Naval and Military Intelligence.

_---~

The Duke of Somerset, K.G., First Lord of the
Admiralty, and the other members of the Board,
resumed and brought to a close their official inspec-
tion of the dockyard and other naval establishments
at Chatham yesterday. In consequence of the
length of time devoted by their Lordships on Thurs-
day afternoon to receiving deputations from the
various bodies of workmen employed in the dock-
yard, and the lateness of the hour when the last of
them was dismissed, the accustoped visit was not
paid to the factories, engineering works, and other
departments in the dockyard. The members of the
Board were desirous of devoting as much of the
ti at their disposal as possible to the most im-
portant part of their duties—that of the inspection
of the works now in progress, to the eastward of
the present dockyard, for the conversion of the
whole of St. Mary's Island and. the adjoining flats
of waste marsh land into basins, wharves, and
docks, by which the existing dockyard will be in-
creased to more than four times its present extent.
Their Lordships, who had remained on board their
steam yacht Enchantress, Staff-Commander J. E.
Petley, in Chatham harbour,, on Thursday night,
embarked in the Admiralty barge at half-past nine
yesterday morning, and were landed on St. Mary's
Island, close to what will form the entrance to the
first of the three basins now in course of formation,
for the purpose of taking up their inspection at the
point concluded on Thursday evening. The mem-
bers of the Board present were the Duke of Somer-
set, Admiral the Hon. Sir F. W. Grey, G.C.8.,
Rear-Admiral the Hon. J. R. Drummond; C. 8.,
and Mr. H. C. E. Childers, M.P., Rear-Admiral
Eden being prevented by other duties from accom-
panying his colleagues. On disembarking at the
island, their Lordships were conducted by Mr.
Bernays, under whom the extension works are
being carried out, and the officials connected
with the engineering staff, to the western or
repairing basin,
the site of which was marked out
by lines of red flags. The basin has a water space
of 21 acres, with a depth of 30ft. at high-water
neaps, and a wharfage frontage of 3,500 ft. With
the exception of outlets at intervals for the drainage
of the water from the creek, the whole extent of the
river wall has been completed. About a mile of the
wall has been finished, and the req *te steam and
other cranes have been erected. The whole of the
works have hitherto been carried out by mean, of
convict labour, the number of prisoners daily em-
ployed on the island varying from 800 to 1,000. The
h
act recently passed will, however, admit of the re-
mainder of the works being put up to contract, and
works,
contemplated is therefore decided that theextension
be ,
contemplated as well as in progress, shall
em-
braced in three separate contracts, the first of which
will include the construction of the great western
basin and two of the adjoining docks, the sides of
which are now distinguished by blue flags; the
second contract will include the cost of the construc-
tion of the factory basin ; and the third contract
will be for the execution of the factory buildings,
the foundations of which have been completed by
the convicts. The repairing basin and factory
basin, with the two adjoining docks, the works con-
nected with which engaged the chief share of their
lordships' attention, cover an area of 42 acres, and
these are to be entirely completed by the autumn of
1869. The site of the propossd fitting out basin,
covering an area of exactly 33 acres, was also in-
spected, but beyond the boundaries being marked
out, nothing has yet been done in the way of exca-
vating for the required foundations, the main object
at present being the construction of the factory and
repairing basins, and their completion by the period
specified. Passing along the river wall for a
length of about 2,000 ft. their lordships inspected