vy Departments[1162]."

Such an act by a naval officer, defiant of British authority and
disregardful of her law, occurred in connection with a matter already
attracting the attention of the British public and causing some anxiety
to Russell--the alleged securing in Ireland of enlistments for the
Northern forces. The war in America had taken from the ranks of industry
in the North great numbers of men and at the same time had created an
increased demand for labour. But the war had also abruptly checked, in
large part, that emigration from Europe which, since the middle
'forties, had been counted upon as a regular source of labour supply,
easily absorbed in the steady growth of productive enterprise. A few
Northern emissaries of the Government early sent abroad to revive
immigration were soon reinforced by private labour agents and by the
efforts of steamship companies[1163]. This resulted in a rapid
resumption of emigration in 1863, and in several cases groups of
Irishmen signed contracts of such a nature (with non-governmental
agents) that on arrival in America they were virtually black-jacked into
the army. The agents thereby secured large profits from the sums offered
under the bounty system of some of the Eastern states for each recruit.
Lyons soon found himself called upon to protest, on appeal from a few of
these hoodwinked British citizens, and Seward did the best he could to
secure redress, though the process was usually a long one owing to
red-tape and also to the resistance of army officers.

As soon as the scheme of "bounty profiteers" was discovered prompt steps
were taken to defeat it by the American Secretary of State. But the few
cases occurring, combined with the acknowledged and encouraged agents of
_bona fide_ labour emigration from Ireland, gave ground for accusations
in Parliament that Ireland was being used against the law as a place of
enlistments. Russell had early taken up the matter with Adams,
investigation had followed, and on it appearing that no authorized
Northern agent was engaged in recruiting in Ireland the subject had been
dropped[1164]. There could be and was no objection to encourage labour
emigration, and this was generally recognized as the basis of the sudden
increase of the numbers going to America[1165]. But diplomatic and
public quiescence was disturbed when the United States war vessel
_Kearsarge_, while in port at Queenstown, November, 1863, took on board
fifteen Irishmen and