Sir Frederick Bruce to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 19th instant, relative to Earl Russell’s despatch of the 2d June, copy of which I left at the State Department, and 1 have forwarded a copy of that note to her Majesty’s government.
It is not within my province to discuss the general observations therein contained on the despatch in question; but, as the construction I put on its terms differs on one important point from that contained in the note you have done me the honor to address to me, I venture to submit at once the views I entertain of its intention for your consideration.
In that note it is stated that “her Majesty’s government avow that they will continue still to require that any United States cruisers which shall hereafter be lying within a British port, harbor, or waters, shall be detained twenty-four hours so as to afford an opportunity for an insurgent vessel then actually being within the said port, harbor, or waters to gain the advantage of the same time for her departure from the same port, harbor, or waters.”
On a mature consideration of the terms of Earl Russell’s despatch, its intention appears to me to be different from the statement contained in the above extract. I understand it to lay down, that the benefit of the twenty-four-hours rule is withdrawn from the so-called confederate vessels-of-war, and that the only exception to this decision will occur under the following circumstances:
If a vessel of this description is lying in a British port when these fresh instructions are received by her Majesty’s authorities, the said vessel having already entered that port on the faith of previous proclamations, and if a cruiser of the United States is lying in the same port, the said vessel is then and for the last time to enjoy the benefit of the twenty-four-hours rule.
According to my view, therefore, the case can only arise once on the receipt by her Majesty’s authorities of the instructions alluded to in Earl Russell’s despatch; nor do I understand, that, except in the particular and improbable contingency above mentioned, there will be any deviation hereafter from the rules of intercourse as practiced towards the vessels-of-war of a friendly state.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.