haracter, in terms of modern naval usage, was that of
a "commerce destroyer." Under an able commander, Captain Semmes, she
traversed all oceans, captured merchant ships and after taking coal and
stores from them, sank or burnt the captures; for two years she evaded
battle with Northern war vessels and spread so wide a fear that an
almost wholesale transfer of the flag from American to British or other
foreign register took place, in the mercantile marine. The career of the
_Alabama_ was followed with increasing anger and chagrin by the North;
this, said the public, was a British ship, manned by a British crew,
using British guns and ammunition, whose escape from Liverpool had been
winked at by the British Government. What further evidence was necessary
of bad faith in a professed strict neutrality?

Nor were American officials far behind the public in suspicion and
anger. At the last moment it had appeared as if the Government were
inclined to stop the "290." Was the hurried departure of the vessel due
to a warning received from official sources? On November 21, Adams
reported that Russell complained in an interview of remarks made
privately by Bright, to the effect that warning had come from Russell
himself, and "seemed to me a little as if he suspected that Mr. Bright
had heard this from me[970]." Adams disavowed, and sincerely, any such
imputation, but at the same time expressed to Russell his conviction
that there must have been from some source a "leak" of the Government's
intention[971]. The question of advance warning to Bullock, or to the
Lairds who built the _Alabama_, was not one which was likely to be
officially put forward in any case; the real issue was whether an
offence to British neutrality law had been committed, whether it would
be acknowledged as such, and still more important, whether repetitions
of the offence would be permitted. The _Alabama_, even though she might,
as the American assistant-secretary of the Navy wrote, be "giving us a
sick turn[972]," could not by herself greatly affect the issue of the
war; but many _Alabamas_ would be a serious matter. The belated
governmental order to stop the vessel was no assurance for the future
since in reply to Adams' protests after her escape, and to a prospective
claim for damages, Russell replied that in fact the orders to stop had
been given merely for the purpose of further investigation, and that in
strict law there had been no neglect of governmental