The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-30 00:00:00

" DRAUGHT OF DECLARATION.

"In affixing his signature to the convention of this
day between her Majesty the Queen of Great Bri-
tain and Ireland and the United States of America,
the Earl Russell declares, by order of her Majesty,
that her Majesty does not intend thereby to under-
take any engagement which shall have any bearing,
direct or indirect, on the internal differences now
prevailing in the United States."

" THE QUESTION OF NEUTRALITY.—DISCUSSIONS
CONCERNING THE QUEEN'S PROCLAMATION.
" MR. ADAMS TO MR. SEAWARD,
(Extracts.)
" Legation of the United States, London,
June 14, 1861.
" Sir,—l have to acknowledge the receipt of your
despatches No. 10, dated the 21st May, and No. 11,
dated on the 24th, with a copy of a letter from
Mr. 0. Vandenburgh, and also a printed circular
from the Department, of the 20th May, relating to
purchases made here of articles contraband of war.
"The intelligence of the feeling expressed in
America upon the reception of the Queen's procla-
mation was fully expected by me, so that it excited
no surprise, and much of the course of your argu-
ment in your despatch will be found to have been
already adopted in my conference with Lord John
Russell, an account of which is before this time in
your hands

" However this may be, my duty was plain.
applied for an interview with Lord John Russell
and he appointed one for 10 o'clock on 'Wednesday
the 12th, at his own house. After some prelimi.
nary talk, I observed to him that I had been in
structed to press upon her Majesty's Govern
runt the expediency of early action on the
subject of privateering ; that in the present state
of excitement in the United States, consequent
upon the measures which it had felt necessary to
adopt. I did Lot know of anything which would
be so likely to allay it as an agreement on this
point. His lordship then said that he did not know
-whether I knew it, but the fact was that Mr. Day-
ton had made a proposition to France for negotia-
tion on the basis of the articles as agreed upon in
Paris. France had communicated the fact through
her Minister, the Comte de Flahault ; and he inti-
mated that there had been a Cabinet conversation
on the subject, without arriving at a decision. I
then refined to what had passed at our former in-
terview. I mentioned my proposal to negotiate,
and the inclination shown by his lordship to leave
the subject with Lord Lyons, with authority to ar-
range the only point in dispute as the Government
at Washington might desire. There I had left the
matter. His lordship replied that he did not mean
to be quite so understood. His intention was to say
that having agreed upon the three Articles he
should he ready to consent to the omission of the
fourth Article if that would be agreeable at Wash-
ington. I said that I had not so understood him,
and from my present recollection I am confident
that my report of his language was not incorrect. .
I next approached the most delicate portion of
my task. I descanted upon the irritation produced
in America by the Queen's Proclamation, upon the
construction almost universally given to it, as de-
signed to aid the insurgents by raising them to
the rank of a belligerent State, and upon the
very decided tone taken by the President in my
despatches in case any such design was really en-
tertained. I added that from my own observa-
tion of what had since occurred here I had not
been able to convince myself of the existence
of such a design. But it was not to be disguised
that the fact of the continued stay of pseudo Com-
missioners in this city, and still more the knowledge
that they had been admitted to more or less inter-
views with his lordship, was calculated to excite
uneasiness. Indeed, it had already given great dis-
satisfaction to my Government. I added, as mode-
rately as I could, that in all frankness any further
protraction of this relation could scarcely fail to be
viewed by us as hostile in spirit, and to require
some corresponding action accordingly.
" His lordship then reviewed the course of Great
Britain. He explained the mode in which they had
consulted with France prior to any action at all, as
to the reception of the deputation from the so-called
Confederate States. It had been the custom both in
France and here to receive such persons unofficially
for a long time back. Poles, Hungarians, Italians,
&c., had been allowed interviews, to hear what they
did
had to say. Bet this
not imply recognition in
their case any more than in ours. He added that
he had seen the gentlemen
once
no expectation
time ago, and once some time since; he
expectation of see-
ing them any more. .
I shall continue my relations here until I dis-
cover some action apparently in conflict With it
receive specific orders from the department di:ta o
tr-
ing an opposite course.
" I ventured to repeat my regret that the procla-
mation had been so hastily issued, and adverted to
the fact that it seemed contrary to the agreement
said to have been proposed by Mr. Dallas, and con-
curred in by his lordship, to postpone all action
until I should arrive, possessed with all the views of
the new Administration. But still, though I felt
that much mischief had ensued in the creation of
prejudices in the United States, not now easy to be
eradicated, I was not myself disposed in any part of
my conduct to aggravate the evil. My views had
been much modified by opportunities of more
extended conversation with persons of weight
Great Britain, by the improved tone of the
nress, by subsequent explanations in Parliament,
oy the prohibition of all attempts to introduce
prizes into British ports, and, lastly, by the
unequivocal expression of sentiment in the
'"4"' of Mr. Gregory when the time came for him
*"111 motion, of recognition. I trusted that

nothing new might occur to change the current
again, for nothing was so unfortunate as the effect
of a recurrence of reciprocal irritations, itcwever
trifling, between countries, in breaking up . he good
understanding which it was always desirable to
preserve.

"His lordship agreed to this, but re ,1 arked that
he could not but think the complaint of the procla-
mation, though natural enough perhaps at this
moment, was really ill-founded. He went over the
ground once more which he occupied in the former
interview—the necessity of doing something to re-

lieve the officers of their ships from the responsi-
bility of treating these persons as pirates if they
met them on the seas. For his own part, he could
not believe the United States would persevere in
the idea of hanging them, for it was not in conso-
nance with their well-known character. But what
would be their own situation if they should be found
practising upon a harsher system than the Ameri-
cans themselves ?

" Here was a very large territory—a number of
States—and people counted by millions, who were
in a state of actual'war. The fact was undeniable
and the embarrassment unavoidable. Under such
circumstances the law officers of the Crown advised
the policy which had been adopted. It was de-
signed only as a preventive to immediate evils.
The United States should not have thought hard of
it. They meant to be entirely neutral.
" I replied that we asked no more than that. We
desired no assistance. Our objection to this aet was
it was practically not an act of neutrality. It had
depressed the spirits of the friends of the Go-
vernment. It had raised the courage of the in-
surgents. We construed it as adverse because
we could not see the necessity of such immediate
haste. These people were not a navigating people.
They had not a ship on the ocean. They had made
no prizes, so far as I knew, excepting such as they
had caught by surprises. Even now, I could
not learn that they had fitted out anything
more than a few old steamboats, utterly
.unable to make any cruise on the ocean, and
scarcely strong enough to bear a cannon of any
calibre. But it was aseless to go over this any
more. The thing was now done. All that we
could hope was that the later explanations would
counteract the worst effects that we had reason to
apprehend from it; and, at any rate, there was one
compensation, the act had released the Government
of the United States from responsibility for any
misdeeds of the rebels towards Great Britain. If
any of their people should capture or maltreat a
British vessel on the ocean, the reclamation must
be made only upon those who had authorized the
wrong: The United States would not be liable.

" I added that I could not close the interview
without one word upon a subject on which I had no
instructions. I saw by the newspapers an account
of considerable movement of troops to Canada. In
our situation this would naturally excite attention
at home, and I was therefore desirous to learn
whether they were ordered with any reference to
possible difficulties with us. His Lordship said
that the country had been denuded of troops for
some time back, and it was regarded only as a pro-
per measure of precaution, in the present disordered
condition of things in the United States, to restore
a part of them. He said he did not know but what
we might do something. He intimated a little feel-
ing of uneasiness at the mission of Mr. Ashmun,
without any notice given as to his purposes ; and
he likewise said something about a threat uttered
by yourself to Lord Lyons to seize a British vessel
on Lake Ontario without ceremony. To this I re-
plied, that, inasmuch as I had understood Mr. Ash-

man's mission had been made known to the Gover-
nor of Canada, it did not seem to me that it could
be of much concealed significance; and that as to
the other matter, if there was any reality in the
threat, it surely was an odd way of proceeding to
furnish at once the warning in time to provide
against its execution.
"I did not touch at all on the subject of the
blockade, as referred to in your despatch No. 10, for
the reason that I do not now understand the Go..
vernment as disposed in any way to question its
validity, or to obstruct it. On the contrary, his Lord-
ship, incidentally referring to it in this interview,
said that instructions had been sent out to the
naval officers in command to respect it, and never
themselves seek to enter into any of the ports
blockaded, unless for some urgent necessity to pro-
tect British persons or property.—l have the
honour to be, sir, your obodient servant,

" CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS."

" REPLY TO THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT TO TIIIS
PROPOSITION.
" MR. SEWARD TO MR. ADAMS.

" Department of State, Washington, Sept. 7.

" Sir,—l have received your despatch of August
23 (No. 32). It is accompanied by a note which
was addressed to you by Lord Russell on the 19th
of the same month, and a paper containing the
form of an official declaration which he proposes to
make on the part of her Majesty on the occasion
of his affixing his signature to the projected Con-
vention between the United States and Great Bri-
tian for the accession of the former Power to the
articles of the declaration of the Congress of Paris
for the melioration of the rigour of international
law in regard to neutrals in maritime war. The
instrument thus submitted to us by Lord Russell is
in the following words :—' Draught of Declaration
—ln affixing his signature to the Convention of
this day between her Majesty the Queen of Great
Britain and Ireland and the United States of Ame-
rica, the Earl Russell declares, by order of her
Majesty, that her Majesty does not intend thereby
to undertake any engagement which shall have
any bearing, direct or indirect, on the internal diffe-
rences now prevailing in the United States.
" Lord Russell, in his note to you, explains the
object of the instrument by saying it is intended to
prevent any misconception as to the nature of the
engagement to be taken by her Majesty.
" You have judged very rightly in considering
this proceeding on the part of the British Govern-
ment, as one so grave and so novel in its character
as to render further action on y our part in regard
to the projected Convention inadmissible until you
shall have special instructions from this department.

" Long before the present communication can
reach you, my instructions of August 17, No. 61,
will have come to your hands. That paper directed
you to ask Lord Russell to explain a passage in a
note written to you, and then lying before me, in
which he said I need scarcely add that, on the
part of Great Britain, the engagement (to be con-
tained in the projected convention) will be prospec-
tive, and will not invalidate anything already done;'
which explanation I stated would be expected as a
preliminary before you could proceed further in the
transaction.

" You have thus been already prepared for the
information that your resolution to await special
instructions in the emergency is approved.
" I feel myself at liberty, perhaps bound, to as-
sume that Lord Russell's proposed declaration,
which I have herein recited, will have been already
regarded, as well by him as by yourself, as suffi-
ciently answering the request for preliminary ex-
planations which you were instructed to make.

" I may therefore assume that the case is fully
before me, and that the question whether this Go-
vernment will consent to enter into the projected
treaty with Great Britain, subject to the condition
of admitting the simultaneous declaration on her
Majesty's part, proposed by Lord Russell, is ready
to be decided.

" I am instructed by the President to say that the
proposed declaration is inadmissible.
" It would be virtually
admit
incorporateddmt such a
new into
article
:01ilezrdcodnivsetinnteiotn7tielt
would forfbtehe first •
time
antdoeai permit
ust its a
in the history of the United States,
foreign Power to take cognizance";
relations upon assumed internal and purely domestic
differences existing within our own country.
" This broad consideration supersedes any neces-
sity for considering in what manner or in what
degree the projected convention, if completed, either
subject to the explanation proposed or not, would
bear directly or indirectly on the internal differ
enees which the British Government assume to be
prevailing in the United States.
" I do not enlarge upon this branch of the subject.
It is enough to say that the view thus adopted by