London, June 27,1863.
. . . You will have seen in the papers a report of the
Alexandra trial, but as a matter of record we have advised the consul, Mr.
Dudley, to have it reprinted in pamphlet form, and sent to every member of the
House of Commons, and to other influential parties. The ruling of the judge
caused universal surprise, and we consider the chance good for a reversal of
the decision next fall, when the full court meet; until which time we
understand the government intend to hold the Alexandra. We are also advised that
the consul can make out so strong a case against the Liverpool ironclads that
he counts with great confidence upon getting them stopped until the full court
meet; we shall hope to bring you more exact information as to the time of this
meeting.1
We shall also have a full consultation with our minister and
Mr. Evarts as to the best time to strike at the ironclads, and we hope to
report to you in person very soon after you receive this letter, as it is our
purpose to leave in the Great Eastern on Tuesday, the 30th, and we ought to
reach New York on Friday or Saturday, 10th or 11th of July. Meantime we beg to
say that the law officers of the Crown seem entirely taken by surprise at the
decision of the Chief Baron, and that it is received by the bar and the public
as an evidence that, if such be the proper construction of the law, it will be
absolutely necessary to the peace of nations to have a better law made. . . . We
still do not think, in the fluctuating state of public opinion (upon which, to
a certain extent, hangs the action of the British government), that it is safe
to trust to the British law alone for security from the ironclads. If things
look worse, in regard to the law, when we strike at the ironclads, we think the
Navy Department ought to be prepared to put a sufficient force near each to
stop her before she can get her armament or her full complement of men. This
would be a very irritating and dangerous experiment upon our friendly relations
with England, but it may become necessary. We understand from the minister
that, except for repairs in case of accident, or for shelter in stress of
weather, our national ships are not admitted to the hospitalities of British
ports; but our continental friends are not so uncharitable, and we can have vessels
at various ports in the reach of telegraph. . . .
_______________
1 This case, The Attorney-General B. Sillem and
others, is found fully reported in parliamentary documents of 1863 and 1864 ;
and also, on appeal, in 2 Hurlstone & Coltmau's Reports, 431, and 10 House
of Lords Cases, 704. It was an information for an alleged violation of the Foreign
Enlistment Act, and was tried 22-25 June, 1863. Chief Baron Pollock charged the
jury that it was lawful to send armed vessels to foreign ports for sale, and
that the question was whether the Alexandra was merely in the course of
building to carry out such a contract. The act did not forbid building ships
for a belligerent power, or selling it munitions of war. And so a belligerent
could employ a person here to build for them a ship, easily convertible into a
man-of-war. He defined the word “equip” as meaning “furnishing with arms,” and
left to the jury the question, Was there an intention to equip or fit out a
vessel at Liverpool with the intention that she should take part in any
contest: that was unlawful. Or was the object really to build a ship on an
order, leaving it to the buyers to use it as they saw fit: that would not be
unlawful. The jury found for the defendants. On a rule for a new trial, the
court was equally divided; whereupon the junior judge withdrew his own judgment
in favor of a new trial, and it was refused. Thereupon the Crown appealed, but
the appeal was dismissed on technical grounds for lack of jurisdiction, first
by the Court of Exchequer Chamber, and finally, on April 6,1864, by the House
of Lords. The Alexandra was not one of the rams, but only a gunboat. She seems
to have been used for a test case. — Ed.
SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and
Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 2, p. 46-8
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