These
declarations may well lead us to doubt whether the apparent difference
between the two governments is not rather one of definition than of
principle."

Lord Aberdeen, in his note to you of the 20th of December, says: "The
undersigned again renounces, as he has already done in the most explicit
terms, any right on the part of the British government to search
American vessels in time of peace. The right of search, except when
specially conceded by treaty, is a pure belligerent right, and can have
no existence on the high seas during peace. The undersigned apprehends,
however, that the right of search is not confined to the verification of
the nationality of the vessel, but also extends to the object of the
voyage and the nature of the cargo. The sole purpose of the British
cruisers is to ascertain whether the vessels they meet with are really
American or not. The right asserted has, in truth, no resemblance to the
right of search, either in principle or practice. It is simply a right
to satisfy the party who has a legitimate interest in knowing the truth,
that the vessel actually is what her colors announce. This right we
concede as freely as we exercise. The British cruisers are not
instructed to detain American vessels under any circumstances whatever;
on the contrary, they are ordered to abstain from all interference with
them, be they slavers or otherwise. But where reasonable suspicion
exists that the American flag has been abused for the purpose of
covering the vessel of another nation, it would appear scarcely
credible, had it not been made manifest by the repeated protestations of
their representative, that the government of the United States, which
has stigmatized and abolished the trade itself, should object to the
adoption of such means as are indispensably necessary for ascertaining
the truth."

And in his recent despatch to Mr. Fox his Lordship further says: "That
the President might be assured that Great Britain would always respect
the just claims of the United States. That the British government made
no pretension to interfere in any manner whatever, either by detention,
visit, or search, with vessels of the United States, known or believed
to be such, but that it still maintained, and would exercise when
necessary, its own right to ascertain the genuineness of any flag which
a suspected vessel might bear; that if, in the exercise of this right,
either from involuntary error, or in spite of every p