The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1865-04-14

use TO do 80, ana Wlthhold aToltra-
,.on."
Earl Russell continued with the fol-
lowing remarks, from which it will be
seen that the war like dispatch of the
British government in regard TO the
Trent affair was modified, as has been
frequently reported, by the advice of
Prince Albert:
"And now as 10 the manner in which
these demands were made In the
f. s. place, l wrote TO Lord Lyons, and
begged him not to make any demand
in the first instance, but acquiant the
with the nature of the dis
patches, and request that he would
name day when the dispatches could
be put into his hand, after consulting
the President That appeared to me
the course which it was most courteous
to take. And l am bound to say, in
these facts, that there is
one circumstances connected with them
which does the highest credit to the
memory, good taste and discretion of
the late Prince Consort. At the last
moment, after Her Majesty had az
drOved the dispatch, zoe received a letter
from the Prince C0nS0rt, in which he said
that some of the expressions used IN
the dispatch might be considered too
abrupt, and suggested other phrases, i0hich
he thought nigkt make IL more easy for the
government Of the United States 70 accept |
the request which il conveyed These phrases
Uere adopted by tie !go0srRn'e'at and. embO-
died in he dispatcA, and, doubtless, tend
ed in some degree to render the docu
ment more acceptable to the United |
States government, who were called |
upon by It's terms to perform duty in
conformity with the law of nations,
and regarded by the people of this
country as an act of justice" [Cheers.
In relation to the Alabama and re
bel rams, Earl Russell said
But it i, said that while we dis
played great haste in acknowledg ng
| the South as belligerents, we were
| guilty of great supineness in the case of
the Alsbsma, and upon this point I
/ have only to state that the evidence
on this subject was furnished to us by
Mr.. Adams, and that the information
which we received was Immediately
laid before the law officers of the
Crown, and that on the very morning
Of the day on which they reported the
Alabama left Birkenhead. On this
question, however, will say no more,
because it may form matter for dis
cussion between the government of the
United States and our own / do not
wish in any way to forestall that dis
cussion, but think | may say that we
have done everything which either ins
ternational law or the law or this coun
try demanded of Us in order to prevent
the attacks made on the trade of the
United States by that vessel There
was, however, another case which was
the subject of much discussion, and in
respect to which considerable irritation
was created.
"After the Alabama had sailed from
Brkenhead other vessels were built,
the const uction Of which amounted
in itself to an armament, and furnished
evidence of a hostile purpose. The
owners of those vessels were in cores
pondence with Captain Bullock, the
agent of Il COME lerate States, and
I
those iron rams were intended to break
the blockade of the Southern ports,
which had been established Now, it
seemed to me that if those vessels were
allowed to proceed from the port of
Liverpool the utmost danger 10 the
friendly relations existing between this
country and the United States would
have been the result 1 could not con
, ceive it possible that the United States
, would have allowed those armed vessels
to break the blockade, which had been
acknowledged by the authorities of
this country, and not make demands
with which we might not have found
ourselves able to comply.
81 therefore took what was very
strong measure on this subject | or
dered those arms to be detained, and
afterwards directed that they should be
; seized for the purpose of preventing
/ them from committing acts of hostility
We subsequently had placed in our
1 hands the contract by.which the agents
: of the Confederates States had agreed
T to sell those rams to NJ BraVay, who
said they were not intended to purpo
ses of hostility against the United
States The question, however, re
! manned to be tried, and We came to the
conclusion that, though the moral evi
] ldence was complete, and though we
! believed the legal evidence to be com
plete, that there might still be circum
? stances which would prevent q convic
ton from being obtained. am, how
ever, convinced that it would not only
? have been unfortunate, but that il
+ would have been an ignoble and igno
minious thing if we had been Obliged
TO 90 to war, not for the honor of Eng
J land, because that was not engaged
: not for the interests of England, be
: cause they were not involved-but fol
the sake of private considerations
Q where no injustice had been done.
, therefore regret very much that the no
! BILE earl opposite took the course which
|, he has taken, and that he should have
E done everything thing in his power Il
y prevent our stopping those vessels
{ which might otherwise have gone anC
z broken the blockade.
e 81 will now say that, there is every
d reason to hope that as the ports of tht
E southern states have been captured bl
: the arms of the United States, many
Q questions which have hitherto arisen q.
q to the breaking of the blockade, til,
: imprisonment of the crews Of vessels
3 and several other questions touching
: the maritime rights of the two countrie
, will disappear, and that there win /,
= the less reason to apprehend the oc
y currence Of hostilities between us anC
g the United States | must at the sam,
y time observe that the impartial cours,
u which Her Msjesfys government hai
y lpursued has from time to time beer
impeded and endangered on the ON.
= side by those parties of the North wht
., y We're constantly stating that we wer,
Il acting in a manner hostile to the North
&c and, on the other, by those who wer,
as constantly viOlating the neutrality
e which Her Majesty had proclaimed il
4 the pursuit OF their own private ends
y But, be that as it may, am satisfies
u that there is not the slightest pretenc,
q for saying that the course which tn
y government has pursued has not beer
strictly neutral
e "To morrow new minister win Sc
y out from this country to represent He
e Maiesty at Washington We great,
: lament that Lord Lyons is, owing t,
d the state of his health, unable to return
= 30 his post Hear, hear There is nj
person to whom the country is NOR,
IS indebted for the wise calm and ooncili
: atory line Of conduct which he has pur
4 sued than that noble lord, who hai
4 never failed, at the same time, to main
y tain the honor and dignity of the
IS country Sir +. Bruce, who is about L
take his place, hiss distinguished him
= self greatly by the tirmness of his poll
. cy. lie has acted in such manner
! towards the Chinese government as tC
completely win their confidence, while
his conduct toward the representatives
Of the other EGrOpesn powers has been
D such as to obtain their concurrence in
every step which be has taken. To-
wards the British interests in China he
had so acted that, while willing TO lis.
L -. Z 49,. 4 e.