ace likewise states, "Whether in the case of a vessel duly
commissioned as a ship of war, after being made prize by a belligerent
Government without being first brought _infra praesidia_, or condemned
by a Court of Prize, the character of prize, within the meaning of Her
Majesty's orders, would or would not be merged in a national ship of
war, I am not called upon to explain."

I feel myself forced to ask for further advice on this point, on which
it is quite possible I may be called upon to take an active part. I have
already, in error apparently, admitted a Confederate prize as a ship of
war. The chief authority on International Law, in which it is in my
power to refer, is Wheaton, who apparently draws no distinction between
ships of war and other ships when found in the position of prizes; and I
wish your Grace to be aware that within the last few days the commander
of a United States ship of war observed to me that if it were his good
fortune to capture the Alabama, he should convert her into a Federal
cruiser.

I trust your Grace will see how desirable it is that I should be fully
informed of the views of Her Majesty's Government on these points, and
that I shall be favoured with a reply to this despatch at your earliest
convenience.

_Rear-Admiral Sir B. Walker to the Secretary to the Admiralty. January_
5, 1864.

I request you will be pleased to acquaint my Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty that the barque called the Tuscaloosa, under the flag of the
Confederate States of North America (referred to in my letter of the
19th of August last), termed a tender to the Alabama, returned to this
anchorage on the 26th ultimo from cruising off the coast of Brazil.

2. In order to ascertain the real character of this vessel, I directed
the boarding officer from my flag-ship to put the questions, as per
inclosure No. 1, to the officer in command, Lieutenant Low, of the
Alabama; and having satisfied myself from his answers that the vessel
was still an uncondemned prize captured by the Alabama under the name of
the Conrad, of Philadelphia, I communicated the circumstances to the
Governor of this Colony, who, concurring in opinion with me that she
ought to be retained under Her Majesty's control and jurisdiction until
reclaimed by her proper owners, for violation of Pier Majesty's orders
for the maintenance of her neutrality, I caused the so-called
Tuscaloosa to be taken possession of; informing Lieutenant Low, at the