The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1856-05-31
RICHMOND. SATURDAY, May 81, 1856.

not Out Know, what was notorious to all the WoFit
mat through the months Of April. May, June. an
July, the recruiting agents In various parts OF tn
United States, and conspicuously In Boston, rev
York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, were keepnl
| up most unseemly contest with the law ofticer
OF the United States and that at least as early
May, the illegalify of the proceedings bad beel
pronounced by the Federal Courts IN New Yori
and Philadelphia; and yet, notwithstanding this
he permitted the unlawful acts in question to 81
on, without check, until the month of August
For thus giving countenance TO these Illegal pro
eeedings, he is distinctly responsible
But his accountability extends yet further; fol
the same documents show that The official sugges
tion to the British Government, of the untoward
scheme of obtaining recruits in the United States
came from the correspondence of MIR. Champion
and of the Consnls at New York, Philadelphia and
Cncinnat and that to Mr.. Champion, were the
superintendenee and execution of the scheme com
mite1. And thus il is that he who directed, had
the power to stop the proceeding; and thus, from
early in March until August, hejs found busily oc
cupied in experimenting enlistments, partly in the
United States and partly in Canada and Nova
Scotia, and in issuing instructions to the agents en-
gagged in that enterprise
It does not suffice for Mr.. Champion now to say
that he did not intend to commit or participate 10
the commission of any Infringement of the laws OF
the United States. lie was the directing head of
loIg continued infringements of the law it was
under superior authority from him that acts OF
continuous violation of law were perpetrated by
the inferior agents; of those agents proved
by his own letters to have held direct intercourse
with him. and at every stage of inquiry, in hume
rous cases investigated by the American Gov
ernment there ia reference, by letter and oral de-
claration, to the general supcrintendence OF Mr.
Champion.
His moral and legal responsibility are thus de-
monstrated With full information of the strin-
geney OF the laws of the United States against
foreign recruiting with distinct perception of its
being all but impossible to raise recruits here with
out infringing the laws and with knowledge of the
condemnatory judicial proceedings of April and
May at New York and Philadelphia, yet he persist
ed in carrying the scheme until August, when
its obstinate prosecution had at length brought
most unpleasant controversy between the United
States and Great Britain And it is not the least
of the causes of complaint against Mr.. Champion
that by his acts of comm isson in this business, or
in falling to advise bis Government of the imprac
ticability of the undertaking in which he was en-
barked and the series of illegal acts which it in
volved, and in neglecting to observe the general
orders of his government and TO stop the recruiting
here the moment its iilegaiity was pronounced
by the proper legal authorities of the United
States, he reeklessly endangering the barmo
ny and peace OF two great nations, which, by the
character of their commercial relations and by
other considerations, have the strongest possible
inducements to cultivate reciprocal aInity.
The foregoing considerations substantially apply
to the conduct of the British Consuls at New York,
and Cincinnati. Though of subordi
nate official character they not less RESPONSE
OF the law proceeded within their respective con-
sulates month after month, under their eyes, not
only without any apparent effort on their part to
stop it, but with more or less of their active parti
cipation therein. The consulate at New York ap-
pears to have been the point at which the largest
were made and it is proved, by doc
uments herewith transmitted, that payments at
that consular Office TO some of the recruiting agents
to be made by the secretary of the Con-
SUI and in the Consus presence, from time to time
down to the beginning of January of the present
year.
The President, as has already been stated by me
cannot admit the force of the objection now urged
Of alleged want of responsibility on the part of
some OF the witnesses by whom these facts were
proved, and as TO whom prominent cause of such
alleged want of respectablity seems to be the fact
that their evidence has inculpated their accom-
pces in the violation of law. The testimony
which most directly inculpates the British Consul
at New York as will be perceived by the enclo
sures herewith is i'll the affidavits of the very per-
sons relied on by her Majestys Government for
proofs in this case, and whose depositions accom-.
pany Lord Clarendons note 10 you of the 30lh of
April
The Earl of Clarendon perfectly we'll under
stands that in Great Britain well in the Uni
led States, it would be impossible to administer
penal justice without occasionally receiving the
evidence of accomplices In Great Britain not
,nly is evidence of this class received continually
n State trials well as in inferior matters, but
out to such witnesses by not few provisions of
acts of Parliament. The competency of such per
sons as witnesses in given case, and their credi
)iltty, are, in both countries, questions upon
which the court and jury, in their respective
spires of jurisdiction, ultimately pass In the pre-.
sent case conclusions have been establisked on do
proofs and other unimpeachabe evi-
iepee, by proceedings before the proper tribunals
'f the United States, by the verdicts Of juries.
and by the rulings Of judges, which must be held
The Earl of Clarendon suggests as considera-
ion pertinent TO this question, that the Minister
and Consuls had no means or opportunity of re-
outtng the charges thus indirectly brought against
hem in the trial of the inferior recruiting agents
In regard to the Con,uls, the Earl of Clarendon
errs in supposng that they had not full means and
opportunity, if they fit, to appear and to con-
front and contradict any accusing Witnessed
they were not allow ed to interfere in the trials by
mere letters written for the occasion, which in
deed they could not have done lawfully had there
been no such prohibition; but if conscious Of their
own innocence and that of the parties on trial and
that their own acts would bear examination, il was
alike their duty and their right 70 appear and say
so on oath, and to contradict by their testimony
whatever was alleged against British officers or
agents II known to them to be untrue.
Nor is 1t any just cause of complaint that evil
dence was received upon these trials impug gning
the acts OF MIR. Champion. 1t was in the due
course of proceedings required to be shown, as
against the parties on trial. that the recrutments
in which they were engaged were for the service
1f a foreign Government Mr.. Champion WAS him.
sef privileged from trial for violation of the mun
,ipal law, but the persons whom he employed
we're not for that cause to go unpunished nor was
.he administration of penal justice to be ndefn-
tely suspended on account OF his position and the
diplomatic immunities which that conferred On
he contrary, it was peculiarly proper that the
acts by which he was implicated but for VIII ich
he could not be tried, should be verified in due
orm of law for the information of his own Gov
,rnment as well as that of the United States.
The Earl OF Clarendon remarks, in his letter Of
he 30th of April that ''the intentions of the Bri
ish Goyernm ant and the arrangements made to
carry those intentions into execution, were not
concealed from the Government of the u. States
Those intentions and arrangements were frankly
stated by Mr. Champion to Mr. Marcy, in conver
,ation on the 22d of March, 1885, and the only OBJ
,ervations which MIR. Marcy made in reply, were,
hat the neutrality laws of the United Staten would
be rigidly enforced. but that any number OF per-
;ons who desired 1t might leave the United States
and get enlisted in any foreign service
II is incumbent me to say that, IN TINS rcspecI,
the Earl of Clarendon iabors under serious inisap-
which, while it serves in part to ex.
plain how it happened that the eni'sfments went
On for so many months in manner contrary 70
The intentions and express orders OF the nIitisn
Government, also serves TO increase the weight OF
MIR. Crampton's s responsibility in this respect =.
Irepeat now, with entire consciousness OF As
what stated In my letter Of the 2Sfn OIL
paoa,,lar jast. that at that interview ION the 20