brought a short distance within British
waters.

Your Grace demurs to my having accepted Captain Semmes' apology for this
improper act, which he ascribed to inadvertence. You will pardon my
noticing that the fact of the act having been done through inadvertence
was established by the United States Consul himself, one of whose
witnesses stated, "the officer in command of the barque came on deck
about that time, and stamping his foot as if chagrined to find her so
near the land, ordered her further off, which was done immediately."

I confess that on such evidence of such a fact I did not consider myself
warranted in requiring the commander of Her Majesty's ship Valorous to
take possession of the Alabama's prize.

The questions involved in the treatment of the Tuscaloosa are far more
important and more embarrassing; and first let me state, with reference
to the suggestion that Captain Semmes should have been required to admit
or deny the allegations of the United States Consul, that no such
proceeding was required. There was not the slightest mystery or
concealment of the circumstances under which the Tuscaloosa had come
into, and then was in possession of the Confederates. The facts were not
disputed. We were required to declare what was her actual status under
those facts. We had recourse to Wheaton, the best authority on
International Law within our reach--an authority of the nation with whom
the question had arisen--an authority which the British Secretary for
Foreign Affairs had recently been quoting in debates on American
questions in the House of Lords.

Your Grace intimates that the citation from this authority by the Acting
Attorney-General does not appear to have any direct bearing upon the
question.

You will assuredly believe that it is not from any want of respect for
your opinion, but solely from a desire to avoid future error, that I
confess my inability to understand this intimation, or, in the absence
of instructions on that head, to see in what direction I am to look for
the law bearing on the subject.

The paragraph cited made no distinction between a vessel with cargo and
a vessel without cargo; and your Grace leaves me in ignorance whether
her character would have been changed if Captain Semmes had got rid of
the cargo before claiming for her admission as a ship of war. Certainly,
acts had been done by him which, according to Wheaton, constituted a
"setting forth as a vessel of war."

Your Gr