Year: 1861

My Dear &r--fou were right in doubling the
declaration imputed to me, towit: that the Cabt-
net at Washington had given orders to seize Messrs.
Mason and Slide even under neutral flag =; for /
was not even aware that the Government had had
that point under consideration At the time of my
leaving New York it was not known that the San
Jacint0 had returned to the American seas; and it
was generally supposed those persons had escaped
to Cnba for the purpose of rGembarlling in the
Nashville, in pursuit Of which vessel the James
Adger and other cruisers had been dispatched.


| think can satisfy you in a few words that you
have no serious occasion to feel concerned about
our relations with England, if, as her rulers pro-
fess, she has no disposition to encourage the dis,
seDsions in America.


In the first place, it is almost superhuous to say
to you that every instinct of prudence as well as
of good neighborhoOd prompts our Government to
regard no honorable sacrifice too great for the
preservation of the friendship of Great Britain.
This must be obvious to all the world. At no pc
riod OF our history has her friendship been of more
Importance to our peopie--at no period has our
Government been in q condition to make greater
concessions to preserve it. The two nations are
united by interests and sympatheS-- commercial,
social, political and regous-amost as the two
arms to one body, and no one is so ignorant as not
to know that What harms one must harm the other
in a corresponding degree.


| am persuaded that the British Government can
entertain no doubt upon this subject; but ii it
does feel that might take it upon myself to say
that the President of the United States when made
aware of its existence, will lose no opportunity
Of dispeing it,


Nor is there anything l venture to affirm, in the
seizure of these rebel emissaries which ought to
receive an untriendly construction from England.
Her statesmen will not question the legal right of
an American vessel of war TO search any com
mercial vessel suspected Of transporting contra
band of war; that right has never been surrender
ed by England; it was even guaranteed to her by
the treaty of Paris. and British guns frowning
down nearly every strait and inland sea upon the
globe. are conclusive evidence that she regards
this right as one, the efficacy of which may be not
vet entirely cXtinguished. OF course there is much
that is irritating and VeXatiOus in the exercise of
this right under the most favorable circumstances,
and it is to be hoped the day is not far distant
when the maritime States of the world will agree
in placing neutral commerce beyond the reach of
such vexations.


The United States Government has been striving
to this end for more than fifty years. to this end,
early in the present century, in its infancy as ma
ton, it embarked in war with the greatest naval
power in the world ; and it is even now persist
ent sniGor at every maritime court in Europe for a
more liberal recognition of the rights OF neutras
than any of the other great maritime nations have
yet been disposed to make. But till those rights
are secured by proper international guarantees,
upon a comprehensive and enduring basis, of
course England cannot complain of an act for
which, in all its material bearings, her own naval
history affords such numerous precedents.


Whether the captives from the Trent were con-
traband of war or not, is question which the two
governments can have no serious difficulty IN