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I 1

"5 ■

■.■■f'^.;

CASE OF M'LEOD

TRIED AS AN ACCOMPLICE

WITH

THE CROWN OF GREAT BRITAIN

FOR FELONY.

; " Parliaments alone cannot save, but Parliaments alone may
niin, a State."

Sir W. Temple.

iToutti) iSUitton.

Ji;i

DAVID URQUHART, Esq.

LONGMAN AND Co., LONDON;

AND

COUPLAND AND Co., SOUTHAMPTON.

1841.

N.B.-

;ion of tl
it is of
By itself
compreh(

LONDON :
PRINTED BY J. MITCHELL AND CO, (laTE BRETTELL),
nUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET.

Preface t
Note to 1
Preface t

j'f

Statemei

Correspc
Amer
of Mr

Debate

Parallel

Interesi
Honi

Pobtscr

N.B.— The case of Mr. M'Leod is subsidiary to the ques-
tion of the Boundary Differences. It is a link in a chain ;
it is of importance solely in connection with that chain.
By itself (as every other diplomatic transaction) it is in-
comprehensible, and can only bewilder and confuse.

CONTENTS.

■ — ♦ —

PAGE

Preface to the Second Edition ^^^

Note to the Third Edition «^*

Preface to the Fourtli Edition ^^"

PART I.
Statement of the Case of Mr. M^Leod 22

PART II.

Correspondence between the British Envoy and the
American Secretary of State, relative to the Seizure
of Mr. McLeod '^^

PART III.

Debate in the House of Commons '^^

PART IV.

Parallel Case of Boundary DiflFerences 72

PART V.

Interests compromised Abroad, Constitution subverted at
Home, by the House of Commons ^2

113
Postscript .' " '

\ ■

CONTENTS.

M
■t

APPENDIX.

No. I. — " The gigantic schemes of r,mb:tion revealed by
England in every quarter of the Globe."

No. II. — Extract from Mr. Adams's Letter to the
Spanish Government, November 28, 1818 ....

No. III. — Contemporary Statement of the Case of the
Caroline, in a Now York Newspaper, the " Courier and
Inquirer"

No. IV. — Papers presented to Congress relative to the
Arrest of Mr. M'^Leod, on account of the Burning of the
Steamer " Caroline"

No. V. — Discussion in Parliament, House of Lords,
Feb. 8, 1841

No. VI. — Boundary Question, House of Commons,
July 13th, 1840

No. VII. — Negociations respecting the Boundary sub-
sequently to breaking the Award, as given in Papers
marked I. and II. .

No. VIII.— Extract from " The Crisis"

No. IX. — Debate in the House of Commons, (Jth May,
1841, on the Destruction cf " The Caroline," &c. . .

No, X. — Extracts from Correspondence between Mr. Fox
and Mr. Webster • .

PAf

12,
12

12^
131

is:

151

155
157

159
164

alod by

• . . 121
to the

* • • 1 z
of the

'ier and

. . . 121
to the
f of the
• . . 13lj
Lords, I

. . 137
imons,

. . 15]
' sub-
Papers
. . 155

. . 157:

May,

. . 159

.Fox

. 164

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The seizure of Mr. M'^Leod appears to Great
Britain merely as an accident. It is not in any
degree attributed to human will ; it is not dreamed
of as conducing to further any existing political
design. It is believed that the British Minister
had, in this matter, nothing further to do than to
consider that which the American Government had

done.

In the following pages it is shown that this event
is not an accident ; that it has becii prepared for,
and therefore has been brought about, and that not
by the will of the United States— that it does tend
to the advancement of a political design — not a
design of the United States ; that it is the British
Minister who has prepared this position; and his
object in doing so is explained by the interests of

Russia he, ])y the examination of other facts,

having been shown to be the instrument of that

vlii

PRtl'ACL TO

power. It is then inferred that the object, with
a view to which the United States' Government
was inveigled into this position, was to furnish
the British Minister with the opportunity of
(hiving it back again ; by this to augment the
ill-will already implanted in the breasts of the
two nations, and to increase the complications in
which the two Governments have already been
involved, by a similar process brought to bear upon
the Boundary Differences.

It is for the reader to weigh well the conse-
(lueiices of such a position, if that, here assumed,
is true ; and then it is for him to examine the proof
upon which it rests.

The debate of the 8th and 9th February, ex-
hibited the Foreign Minister as justifying the
proceedings of the United States, and informed this
nation that the steps which the Government had
taken, were nothing more than the repetition of tiie
dispatches already sent to America, which amounted
solely to the admission of the legality of the pro-
ceedings, and of the authority of the tribunal. In
face of these facts, I declared that the British
Minister was not about to submit, but was only
enticing the American Government on. A few days ,
after this declaration was in print, was it made

TITR SKCOND FDrTION.

known that the British Government luid taken
a decided line — had determined to enforce the
liberation of Mr. M^Lood without trial*, and that it
was about to send out a squadron to enforce that
demand.

Now that this intelligence has been made public,
war is supposed to be inevitable. 1 have already
asserted in these pages, my belief that the moment
for war was not comef. I have said this, observing
the attitude of Russia, knowing that it was in a
just estimate of her movements that I could alone
find the means of anticipating events.

* See the words of Sir R. Peel in the House of Commons on
the 5th of March — or is this too a false rumour ?

t The time is not come for warj both because the cup of hatred
is not full, and because the means of destruction are not sufficient.
But now will come on — arming of America — raising of fortresses
— drawing out of militia — founding of cannon — cquii)ping and
building of ships — augmentation of troops; and this load of
military prcp.arations, while preparing for inter-destruction with
neighbours, will also be preparing for political dissolution at
home. The Treaty of the 15th of July has already added more
than 500,000 men to the peace establishments of Central Europe,
(Germany, Italy, and France). It has already cost Europe
£.50,000,000, and has added ten millions yearly to the regular
expenditure of those states. The pretext for this measure was the
maintenance of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire — which the
act itself dismembers^ and the Divan is now no more than the
counterpart of the secret Muscovite Conclave in Downing Street,
that for ten years has tortured the world.

PREFACE TO

Tntelliwncc of a final scttloment of the Eastern
question was spread abroad at the same moment
that it was allowed to become known that these
decisive measures were taken with respect to the
United States ; it was also at the same time
spread abroad, that, in the new adjustment of the
aflairs of the East, France would be a consenting
party. A few days after, we learn that the affairs
of the East are as unsettled as ever, and another
cloud has passed over the French alliance. The
moment of sunshine was then called in for a
purpose — the purpose of reconciling England to
the decided measures against the United States,
and of overawing the United States by the ap-
pearance of the union of Europe with England,
when she expected to hear of rupture and collision.
These will be followed soon by rumours in another
sense, for the end is to confuse the minds of men,
and to complicate afTairs.

To France (from whom a recent Quadrui)le
Treaty was withheld) Ihe En(/lish GovevmnciU com-
municaled first (so at least the public press infoims
us), its intention of rcquirinij imperatively from the
United States the liberation of Mr. 3PLeo(l, nith-
out trial, and of sendtny a sqn((dron to enforce that
demand, A few days afterwards the Paris papers

•A

THR Til nil) F.DITION.

XXI

Parliament and nation, whicli had demanded and
suggested nothing; and which has, indeed, ah'eady
forgotten that such a person as Mr. M'^Leod is in
existence, and awaits for the interest of excitement
that may he afforded it by some more novel incident
of degradation and dishonour.

There is no escape from the dilemma in which
your Minister has placed you, save in the surrender
of Mr. M'^Leod. This if withheld could be ob-
tained only by evincing the determination of Eng-
land to enforce it. Instead of this, the British
Minister puts the t7vo Governments on the same
level, he designates the dispositions of the British
Government as pacific, the man not being liberated,
and he describes the position of the two Governments
as on' of pending negociation. Does not this
coincide with the process we have traced throughout
the remainder of this proceeding ? Does it not
confirm the explanation of it which we have
offered ? Does it not reveal equal dexterity in com-
plicating affairs, and success in compromising a
Parliament, and in blinding a people ?

Every one now admits that Lord Palmerston has
stated what was false in regard to this affair, but no
one asks himself why the British Minister should
have stated what was false — no one is filled with
indignation that a British Minister should utter a
falsehood, or conceives such a state of things to be
dangerous. This could not be if common honesty
had not left the land ; we need not marvel then
that common sense should have departed.

PKEFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

Since the publication of the Third Edition of
these pages, which are now reprinted without any
alteration, intelligence of the trial and acquittal of
Mr. M'^Leod has reached this country. The life
of a British subject, imprisoned under the charge of
obedience to the delegated authority of the Crown,
is no longer at stake ; but the question, in its gravest
aspect, in its national import and teeming future
remains unaltered. The seizure, — permitted reten-
tion, and trial of a British subject has taken place ;
and through this a permanent change in the charac-
ter, position, interests, rights of Britons and of
Britain — unless, that which has been in this case
invited, submitted to, and sanctioned, be now re-
pudiated.

Against the effects of this and similarly-concocted
betrayals it will ere long be too late to protest, and
vain to struggle.

To the responsibility which the leaders of the
Conservative Party have already incurred, as mem-
bers of the opposition, they will have accepted, now
a second and more direct responsibility ; and unless
they repudiate the past, they will soon have to reap
a harvest of the dragons' teeth that have been sown
for them.

The United States having assumed, and asserted
to England the destruction of the Caroline to be an
ortence against its sovereignty, was warranted, while
Great Britain withheld a reply (which was tanta-
mount to concurrence), in seizing and hanging any

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. XXIll

f)f the parties to that act, or indeed any British
citizen. Mr. M'^Leod is arrested — the British
..Envoy can only plead his case.

The United States, emboldened by this concur-
rence, and encouraged by the facility and success
which attended each new assumption as every past
encroachment*, contended next for an independent
jurisdiction for the State of New Yorkf! thus
claiming in the abdication of its authority, a power
of placing each state of the federation above all law,
recognised between nations.

These are direct consequences of the non-recog-
nition of the destruction of the Caroline. But it
may be said that it was impossible to foresee the
seizure of anv of the actors in that scene, and that
therefore Lord Palmerston had not thought it worth
while to reply to the demand of the United States.
But we find that this contingence was not only
foreseen, but publicly announced — steps having
been taken for that purpose in the law courts of the
State of New York !

How, then, could the British Minister escape
from dealing with the question ? The prevention
of such an occurrence was the easiest of things
while the most imperative of duties,— a reply settled
the matter. Instructions, on the anticipation of
such an event, were sent, but they were — to remon-
strate ; instructions kept concealed from the United

* See also Boundary Question.

t It will be seen by reference to tho Parliamentary papers
relative to the Boundary disturbances in 1827 and 1820, a pas-
sage from which I have quoted in my analysis of the papers
relative to the Boundary Question, that Lord Palmerston was the
first to suggest this separate jurisdiction.

XXIV

PREFACE TO

States Government for eighteen months, till after
the arrest of a British subject — instructions inopera-
tive when produced as withholding all reply to the
demand of the United States !

Putting aside, then, his motives and intentions,
Lord Palmerston is responsible for the event that
has occurred, and such responsibility is impeach-
ment.

A decision, or reply, relative to the Caroline, was
withheld by the British minister till the United
States were fully committed.

When the British Government does avow the
destruction of the Caroline — that avowal comes to
consummate the degradation of the crown in exhi-
biting it struggling in vain to obtain the liberation
of one of its servants, imprisoned and tried for an
act avowed as its own !

And upon what plea has this course of action
been justified by the United States, and submitted
to by Great Britain ? This — that the State of New
York has its independent jurisdiction !

It is repulsive even to the most ordinary common
sense that such a question could, for a moment, be
matter of discussion, as it would have been held an
insult to the meanest capacity, if put a priori ; and
yet such is the ability of these so-called civilized
nations, that argument and reasoning on this
fatuity has constituted the sum of public discussion
on this momentous question ; which has closed, as
far as England and her press is concerned, by the
expression of their confidence that the enlightened
policy of the United States would lead them " to
" alter their constilution /"

The Conservative Government are brought in to

THE FOURTH EDITION.

XXV

be committed to this act, as by coming in, in 1834,
they were to the setting aside of the award of the
King of Holland, and also to bear the shock of the
disasters about to burst on this land.

On the 6th May (subsequently to the publication
of the third edition), Mr. Hume moved for the
production of papers; the motion was opposed by
Lord John Russell, to whom, on that occasion,
Lord Palmerston confided the task of bewildering
the House.

In declining, on the usual pretext, to produce the
papers moved for, Lord John Russell, while he
purports to state " jjrecisely how the matter stood,''
mentions the fact of " complaint" having been made,
but not that redress was, at the same time, required,
as subsequently in the same evening he was drawn
out to acknowledge. It will likewise be seen by
Lord John's remarks, that England was still allowed
to leave the matter as assumed by the United States,
as the act of " individuals." Again, it was not the
" acts,'' but one act, the destruction of the Caroline,
which was in question, and which could not be
left in doubt a single hour. It will thus be seen,
that up to the very time Lord John Russell spoke,
his own words prove the United States were not
authorised to lOok on it as an act of the British
Government, but could only view it as the act of
" certain individuals and officers of Upper Canada."
Neither was there any " discussion" between the
two Governments; there was complaint and de-
mand for redress on the one hand, — no reply on
the other, — but what was worse, an admission of
statements and counter-statements by subordinate

XXVI

PREFACE TO

authorities, without first establishing the character of
the transaction itself. The United States Govern-
ment did not, says Lord John Russell, press for an
answer. The question was, why did the British
niinister not give an answer? These words prove
that the answer had not been given ; the inquiry
had resulted from this silence; for if there is no
reason advanced, or excuse set up, the mere state-
ment that the opposite party had not pressed you
to do your own duty is offered and accepted^
as justification for the neglect of that duty ! and
this by 650 gentlemen, charged by delegation and
on oath, to watch over the public interests.

Lord John Russell concludes by stating, that,
but for the arrest of Mr. M*=Leod the matter would
have been allowed to drop 1

Sir R. Peel asks, " whether the law could he
" allowed to take its course ?'* and this in such a case
AS THAT which has been unfolded in these pages.
What knows such a man of international rights and
public law ?

Again, Sir Robert Peel steps forward as the pro-
tector of the Government from the questions put
by Mr. Duncombe, — questions which, had they
emanated from the leader of a powerful opposition,
as the country had a right to expect, would have
saved us from this and the like disgrace, danger,
and crime.

The further diplomatic correspondence which has
appeared, places most clearly the dilemma for the
United States. The British Minister, through the
channel of Mr. Fox, reiterates the demand for the
release of Mr. M'^Leod, on the grounds that he was
arrested and put upon his trial on account of tran-

THE FOURTH EDITION.

XXVll

i.1

sactions of a public character, planned and executed
by persons duly empowered by Her Majesty's Co-
lonial Authorities, &c. He then goes on to say,
that " the transaction in question may have been
a justifiable employment of force, as is the
opinion of Her Majesty's Government, or it
might have been a most unjustifiable violation of
" the territories of the United States, as was the
" opinion of the Government of the United States."
" But this," says Lord Palmerston, " is a question
purely of an international kind, which can be
discussed and settled only between the two Go-
'' vernments." This is the subject which he had
avoided to discuss, and by avoiding to discuss
which, he justified the United States in considering
as an '* unjust violation of their territory" — gav^
them thereby the right of trying, not only the par-
ties concerned as if it were a question of individual
crime, but any individual subject of the British
Crown, whom they might think fit to seize. The
law respecting reprisals must equally apply respect-
ing crimes, although the world has never yet pre-
sented the circumstances in which such an applica-
tion had been made. Mr. Webster, in his reply,
labours to bring the British Minister to see that, by
not establishing the case of the British Government
as against the United States, they compelled the
United States into a position of aggression against
Great Britain. In the Appendix will be found the
most important passages in the two letters*.

See Appendix, No. X.

PART 1.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE OF MR. M*^LEOD*.

" To neglegt those things to which your lives and fortunes
should be devoted, is most reprehensible ; yet you never attend
but on occasions like this, when danger is actually present."

Demosthenes.

A British subject is arraigned before the Court
of a Foreign State for acts performed in discharge of
his public duty. He is placed in a malefactor's cell,
as an accessory, where the Sovereign of England is
the principal.

Hordes overrun, savages massacre, and pirates
plunder, through the power of which they are
possessed, and because there is no help for their
victims, and these things have been seen in many
ages ; but it has been reserved for t'ne present to
exhibit lawless phrenzy putting on the forms of
law, and weakness outraging imperial majesty !
Is it in the Old World or in the New, that
hearts have been found to conceive such a de-
sign, and hands to execute it? Is it the young

* See Appendix^ Nos. II. and III.

I :
1

TUFC SIICONI) EDITION.

mention long and frequent conferences between tlie
United States Envoy and the French Minister.

Independently of the progressive march of hos-
tility between the United States and England, ob-
serve the effect of this blow, levelled by England
at her own friends — at the verv moment of their
accession. The new administration, the new Pre-
sident, the party which in the United States is the
natural ally of England, comprising the men of
worth, and known for the thoughts of value, are at
once placed in flagrant opposition to England, and
through them is to be levelled by England this
immedicable wound.

So in the Treaty of the 15th July was the blow
struck by England at the Minister in France, who,
befoie his nation, in the most extraordinary and
jibsolute manner, had committed himself to an
'^ English Alliance," and to an " English Alliance
alone*."

* M. Thiers, in replying to the proposition that it was the in-
terest of France to ally herself with Russia in her projects of
partition, uses these words : — " In this state of our affairs, with
whom was it our duty to have allied ourselves ?. M^ith England^
and ONLY WITH England. * * What nation is interested in
preventing Russia obtaining possession of Constantinople ? Is it
not England ? In the resistance, therefore, of France to Russia,
England becomes, and necessarily must remain, our ally. When
France is united to England, who can resist, and what can en-

Xll

PREFACE TO

At the period of M. Tliicrs's accession to office, I
prognosticated his fall by the act of England, I
did so knowing the objects of Russia, and her
instruments. It was important to strike a blow
at any friend of England, and how much more at
the friend of England in France. It was important
to make England injure France any how ; but how
much more so in the person of the man who had
compromised himself as the friend of Kngland.
Then, by the same blow, is France alienated from
England — is the chief friend of England in France
destroyed — is he converted into a foe — and foreign
influence gains the power to make and to unmake
a Government*! These words will not be now

danger ? Our joint standard will float over the world, inscribed
with the motto ' Liberty and Peace.' "

Delate^ lOth January^ 1840.
* " Thus the French Government, in assaulting England (by
the blockade of Mexico), has violated its own laws— has defied
the power of its own tribimals, and, in this course of iniquity, it
is supported by the Minister of England. The Russian Minister
of England finds means to support the Russian faction at Paris
against the violation of French law, as against the infraction of
British rights ; against the decisions of a French tribunal, as
against the law of nations ; against the people and the parlia-
ment of France, he supports them by the people and the ]>arlia-
ment of England, whom he appears to represent, and whom
he moulds to his will. Thus does England render triumphant
hor enemies in the French councils. Thus does she conlirm
Franco in a course of liostility to England. Thus does she render

THE SFCONI) EDl'llON.

XUt

iiiidorstood, but they stand on record for the time
when they will.

Look now at the contrast. Under Marshal Soult,
before the accession of M. Thiers, France has
prepared alone to resist Russia ; the successor of
M. Thiers, brought in by England, is actually
taking the lead in the accomplishment of that pro-
ject of Russia (the exclusion of Europe from the
Dardanelles), which, when first whispered in the
Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, united France and Eng-
land in a protest against her !

Again it will be asked, as on every such t)cca-
sion, " how is it, even if we could admit the guilt
" of the minister, that the chiefs of the other party
*' and his colleagues can be blind to such danger, or
" can be ignorant of such facts?" No step can be
taken by the Foreign Minister except in as far as he
blinds these men, but these men are blind — the

it impossible for any French statesman'"' friendly to England to
come into power, or coming into power, to remain her friend.
No one can remain friendly to a power that has become tbo
enemy of itself. Therefore, those who have been the friends of
England must now become her bitterest foes becansc betrayed,
and her foes become possessed of her senseless pcojjle's unsus-
pecting confidence." — Conversation Sth February^ 1840. Diplo-
macy and Commerce.

* " ]M. Thiers was excluded from office, because he had de-
clared alliance with England, the chief end of the foreign jiolicy
of France." He has since come into office, and has been expelled
by Enfjland.

XIV

IKE FACE Tl)

nation is blinded by them — how can it be taught
to see their blindness except by gaining sight, that
is, knowledge of affairs ?

The Treaty of the 15th July, was enforced on
this Nation, on the Parliament, on the colleagues of
the Minister, on the Sovereign. They resisted —
nevertheless, tiie thing was done ; no sooner was it
done, than they all commended it. The means by
which the Foreign Minister carried out his objects
are not known to the nation, and the act being
adopted, they care not about the means*. Tlie
means by which it is led, not to act only, but to
believe, are kept secret from a people thinking

* The following remarkable language appeared in the columns
of an organ hitherto attached to the policy of Lord Pahnerston,
on the publication of the documents connected with the Treaty of
15th July.

" The zeal with which we have hitherto defended the foreign
policy of Lord Palmerston would have been somewhat abated
• had we been aware of many of those Downing Street secrets
which arc now revealed to us. Though prepared to find Lord
Palmerston acting in concert with Russia, it required the pub-
lication of these official papers to convince us of the extent to
which his Lordship lent himself to promote the views of that
wily and unscrupulous Power."

" Is it then possible that Lord Palmerston could so betray
the interests of this country as to enter into a collusive negociation
with Russia, flinging the dust of spurious patriotism into the eyes
(>f the British people, while actually engaged in abandoning the
Turkish capital to Rubsitm protection ?" &c. — The Sun, April 2\.

■^^

THE SECOND EDITION.

I Kit

itself to be free, and these arc successful by
secrecy alone. Thus a free people is governed
with a secrecy, unknown to the most despotic
states. The day l)efore the Treaty of the IDtli
.Tuly was signed, the Foreign Minister was looked
upon as the enemy of Russia — he suddenly ap-
pears adopting her views. No one questions why
the change, and no one opposes it. Had any one,
even an hour before it was known to exist, declared
that such a treaty was in existence, or in contempla-
tion, he would have been called mad*. The fact
occurs, and every one is content.

It is only a blind man that can be led ; but even
being blind, some cord, however slender, must be
used to lead him. The method of leading a blind
nation, which has been adopted on one occasion,
must serve, if we can ascertain it, to enlighten us as
to how it is to be on other occasions conducted.

The following is one of those slender threads by
which this empire has been dragged into the Treaty
of the 15th of July : —

France under a minister who was a partisan of

* AVhen it was first asserted that this Treaty did exist, the
leading journal of the day said that England would arise like a
single man, and tear it like a mesh of rushes. Two days after-
wards, it was advocating the Treaty.

XVI

I'll i:f Act lo

Russia, had made to Russia propositions for u
project of common partition to the exclusion of
England. Russia places these proposals in the
hands of Lord Palmerston. To doubts arising
in the minds of important personages regard-
ing the policy of the Treaty of loth July, he
is thus enabled to reply : — " I can give you
** the proof — I can put into your hands incon-
*' trovertible evidence of the devotion of Rus-
" sia to England; of the hostility of France to
" England ; of the necessity of union with Russia
" against France, to prevent a union of France
" and Russia against England. Here is a
" proposition from France made to Russia,
" and placed by the loyalty of Russia in my
** possession*." This communication has not
to be made to many persons. It is made in the
strictest secrecv, and thus it reaches far. Throuidi
the leaders it influences whole bodies ; it controls
both parties through one man. The nation seeing
parliament silent— hostile leaders acquiescing— is
silent too, and acquiesces. This device produces
these effects simply because it is secret.

■ii

-K',

* See "• Tiio Crisis," an oxtruct from which will bu found in
tho Appendix, N(... VIII,

rili: SlUONI) KDITION.

X\ II

III tlie prescnl instance like means may be adopted,
if indeed, by success in regard to the Treaty of the
ir)tli July, ill lulling suspicion, and in coniniitting
all men to his acts, he is not placed in a position
so commanding a» to enable him to dispense with
such means of deception. Still the same tactics may
be again repeated here ; Russia may have led the
United States, or some members of the United
States, to some proposition of concert with her
against England*. She would then place in Lord
Palmerston's hands these new proofs of her devo-
tion and of his loyalty. These, as in the former
instance, he entrusts (if necessary) to a few indivi-

* Extract from a Letter ; for the accuracy of the state-
ments I cannot vouch,

» March 24/A.

" Russia, I understand, put Government in possession
of the fact of the American offer (of naval aid to Russia
in case of a rupture with England) ten days ago, and Lord
Palnierston intends to bring the fact forward to the House
after Easter. Lord Palmerston''s demands for the release of
Mr. M'Leod are peremptory ; and that, if not inmiediately
acceded to, Mr Fox returns home !

" Lord Palmerston would thus be again strengthened
by this exhibition of his watchfulness, of Iiis able policy in
settling the friendship of Russia, while it establishes her
fair, friendly, and honourable conduct ' in the hour of
' need,"* as Baron Brunow stated at the dinner. How ad-
mirably all this is played !

XVlll

PKKFACE TO I'lIE SECOND EDITION.

(huils-:-iiay, say to one indhidmd ; and, by this
alone, overthrows all possible resistance. Far
from opposition, suspicion, denunciation, punish-
ment — another act of applauding submission on
the part of the nation is ensured — a repetition of
endurance of what is incomprehensible, followed
by a conclusion which this infatuated nation will
call a triumph.

It is understood that the Government has re-
quested from the Duke of Wellington, a plan of
campaign against the United States.

XIX

Note to the Third Edition.

April 23rd,

Again another month has elapsed, and the servant
ol" the British Crown remains still in an American
gaol on a charge of felony, for the performance of
an act now publicly acknowledged to be the act of
the British Government !

This nation has further learnt, with indifference
or with resignation, that he is to lie there for a
further period of six months, awaiting a trial.

The British nation is familiarized to submission,
to outrage, and to uncertainty. The United States
is habituated to the infliction of outrage on Great
Britain ; and the sore is kept open and festering,
to be envenomed by, and to envenom, the running
sores of Asia and of Europe. But is not this —
punishment — without trial? Is not this a trial
which is a condemnation ?

Again, since the last edition of this Pamphlet, has
the Foreign Secretary relieved the American Go-
vernment from all anxiety in the prosecution of the
course into which he has led it. He has refused to
produce the correspondence relative to the destruc-
tion of the Caroline*.

It must be evident to each individual that there
was now no difficulty in bringing the American

See Aj)pendix, page 150.

•

NOTK TO

Government to setttle this question, and that it
required but the expression of a determination that
it should be settled.* Yet this is the moment that
the Britisli Ministers selects for refusing the docu-
ments, and for assigning as a reason for their
refusal the pacific dispositions of " both Govern-
ments," and for urging moderation on the British

* The tono of public feeling in the United States may Lo
appreciated from the following extract from the press of that
country.

" The Progress op British Arms."

" So far as our own people are concerned, it is their duty to
know, and to note the immense increase of British Power within
a few years. Let those who in this country stimulate war,
ponder upon its dreadful coneequcnces, and the terrible power
with which we shall have to struggle. lict those too who most
cry " war," be pinned by solemn bond to serve in sucli a war.
Let the frontier too know, that, in all probability, from Detroit
to Burlington, not a town nor vilhige near the line would escapC)
if not conflagration, the tramp and the sack of the British
soldier. Let the seaboard also know, that it is easier, with the
rapid aid of steam power now, to lay Boston, New York,
Baltimore, and Charleston in ashes, than Beyrout or Jean
d'Acre — for three or four years of rout and disaster only can
prepare us for war or give us the defences of war.

" A war between England and the L^nitcd States is, therefore,
a suicide, as well as a fratricide. We have no i)atiencc with the
unnatural oiFsjiring of a connnon origin that cry for it. The
diflicult questions we have to settle, must be adjusted with tlio
forbearance and kindness of, as it were household disputes. If
England be ambitious for wrongful power, it must be souf^ht for
among the Barbarians of Asia, or in the Islands of the ocean —
not here, among its offspring, who have inherited its valour, and
learnt its lessona of wrong and right." — New York Wecklj/

Statement of the Case of Mr. M'Leod. 23

republic of Anglo-Saxons, that by some strange
revolution in human affairs, or in human thoughts,
has acquired a real power, by which the might of
Britain can thus be defied, or some mysterious fasci-
nation by which its manhood can be unstrung ? Or,
is it within the British empire itself that the project
has l)een conceived ? Is there there some enemy dis-
guised within the most secret folds and forms of the
constitution, stabbing it in the dark, while using its
power to spread hatred for the British name, to
rouse up enemies to the British State, and thus
secure immunity for crime — success to treason ?

In December 1837, a party of outlaws, principally
citizens of the United States, and formed within its
limits, proceeded to assault the British territory.
They came with ammunition, with artillery be-
longing to the United States, and they were sup-
plied from the opposite shore by a steam- vessel.
This vessel, whilst lying in a harbour of the United
States, was attacked by a party of British troops,
and destroyed. The British Government made
no demand for satisfaction for this invasion. The
American Government demanded reparation for
an alleged violation of its territory. The British
Government gave no reply. Bills of indictment
for murder and arson are filed in the courts of
New York against the chief civil authorities of
the Province of Upper Canada. Eighteen months
elapse, when the British Minister is informed that
the American Government is about to take criminal

Statement of the Case

proceedings against individuals connected vfith that
enterprise. Instructions are sent to the Envoy of
Great Britain at Washington, to protest against
the act of the American Government after it should
have been committed, and so as to justify the act.
The expected case does not occur. A further period
of eighteen months elapses — the British Government
gives no reply to the demand of the American Go-
vernment for redress— takes no notice of the bills
of indictment against the servants of the British
Crown. Two years and eleven months elapse,
and in November 1840, the Deputy-Sheriff of the
County of New Brunswick, adjoining the scene of
action, is arrested and committed to prison to take
his trial on the charge of arson and murder.

The burning of the Caroline was either an
act of self-defence, or it was a crime uniting
murder, piracy, and arson. The British Govern-
ment had at once to assume it as its own, or to
affoid to the United States reparation by the
punishment of its perpetrators. If it was not an
act of the British Government, it was an assault
on its authority. Being against the subjects of
a foreign state, the British Government had to
demand reparation for the acts which had called it
forth, or by reparation to have emancipated itself
from the consequences of an act so atrocious.
There was no middle course.

But the destruction of the Caroline was not the
act of private individuals, it was an operation per-
formed by public servants under authority.

ofMi\ M'Leod.

The Government of the United Slates had judged
the men occupying Navy Island to be outlaws.
No American citizen could, therefore, be guilty of
murder in killing these men, nor guilty of arson in
destroying the vessel. The destruction of these men,
as of their vessel, was an act not reprehensible, even
if not required in self-protection. By what code,
therefore, can the subjects of a foreign state be
arraigned for arson or for murder ? If that court
has judged defence against outlaws to be murder,
it is a court established for the destruction of law,
not for the dispensation of justice — for the perpe-
tration of piracy, not for the protection of men.
This charge of murder and arson converts the
court into the violator of the laws of the United
States — of international law, and places it in
flagrant hostility with the government of the
United States. But this court arraigns, as felons,
not private individuals but officers of a govern-
ment — it is, then, war that it wages, not justice
that it asserts.

On the other hand, the British Government leaves
in suspense the act of its servants, in seizing a
vessel in the harbour of another state — it leaves
hanging over their heads, during three years, a
charge of felony ! This, indeed, is incomprehensible,
and must arouse the most vehement indignation
or the most alarming suspicions.

The demand of the United States was for repa-
ration for the violation of the neutrality of its territory.

Statement of the Case

If the neutrality of its territory was violated by the
capture, must it not have been so by the presence of
the Caroline ? " Neutrality /" Pirates on the one
hand, and a government on the other, and the
United States speak of neutrality ? Pirates and out-
laws issue from its frontier, armed with its weapons,
unresisted by its authority, to assault a friendly
neighbour, and when these outlaws are repressed,
it declares its neutrality violated, it pursues as felons
the officers who exterminated the band, that assailing
the one country had compromised the other ? You
are astounded at such a proceeding ; but why do I
thus present it to you ? Not to lead you to think
harshly or to speak insultingly of the American people
or state, over whom you have no control, and who
owe to you no duty and no responsibility; but to
show to you the characters of the act submitted to
and sanctioned by your government, in order that
you may judge of the conduct of men who are your
servants, to whom you give power, from whom you
can withdraw it, whom you guide by your opinion,
whom you recompense or punish, according to your
knowledge of public affairs and of their acts. If
they have done amiss, they have been able to do so
through your power, that is, through your igno-
rance ; for in their mismanagement, there could
be no strength except by your concurrence.

England, bij not making a demand jir reparation
for the aggressions proceeding from the United
States, left the character of the seizure of the vessel

o/Mr.M'Lcod.

open to discussion : by submitting in silence to
THE DEMAND FOR REPARATION fioni America, she
gave her pragmatic consent to the assertion, made by
the Government of the United States, that that act
was one of piracy. The United States Government, in
demanding reparation, committed an outrage on Eng-
land ; and the English Government, by its silence,
acquiesced in that outrage, and became a party to it.
Here was a demand that was an outrage to Britain
— sanctioned : here was a constructive insult so
flimsy as to invite refutation — submitted to : here
was an assertion which suspended over the head
of Britain the charge of arson and of murder
— admitted : here was a step of the United States
Government, which converted into a crime of Great
Britain against the United States, that which was a
crime of the United States against Great Britain —
not unresisted, but encouraged. This is what your
Minister has brought about, because England knew
nothing of these transactions, or of any such trans-
actions, and could not, in the first instance, obtain
or select a Minister thai was able, and could not
then detect or pumsh ont^ that was criminal.

What would be said of leaving a simple dispatch
for three years un replied to ? But in such a matter,
with such consequences impending, such interests
involved, such charges alleged, not three years, but
three days' silence, it would be impossible to ac-
count for, as men account for the doubtful acts of
men. Will you attempt to account for it by neg-

Statement of the Case

ligence, by ignorance, by incapacity ? The existence
of a government implies the performance of, at
least, some functions — the existence of a nation, the
maintenance of some rights. All idea of functions
— of rights must have vanished from the mind of
him who could conceive that such acts are to
be explained by characters in the system, rather
than to be traced to a design against it*. He must
have reasoned to the conclusion, if he reasoned at
all, that England was the name of an island, but
that that word no longer designated a Government,
or represented a nation. Look at the reciprocal
position of the two parties to this transaction ; per-
sonify the two Governments ; represent to yourself
that of the United States, standing in an attitude of
menace, uttering words of outrage, giving vent to
denunciation of crime, making demand for satisfac-
tion ; and, on the other hand, the Government of
the British Empire, not only innocent but the ag-
grieved party, standing silent to be reproached— and
powerful to be insulted ; and throwing away right
and power, self-respect, the respect of others, in-
curring these reproaches, incurring this danger,
seeing all this before it, and not moving a muscle,
nor stirring a limb, nor sufFering a sound to escape
from its lips, when a single sound sufficed to do all
that it had to do, and avert all that it had to appre-

* " These men are guilty, but our constitution is not, therefore,
sul)verted." — Demosthenes.

of Mr, M'Leod.

hend ! Is this nation composed of such men as
have hitherto composed nations, when a Govern-
ment could assume such a position, and when
that position is exhibited before ' eir eyes, and is
not understood ?

Thus, during three years, has the United States
Government been left in possession of the faculty
of treating the subjects of the British crown as
guilty of felony, and of proceeding against the
British State. Three years have been given to
ponder over the mystery of the minister of Eng-
land, over the mystery of its people. During three
years, their attention has been thus more peculiarly
aroused to watch the progress of the gigantic
schemes of ambition revealed by England in every
quarter of the globe* ; while their mind is directed
hopefully during that period to the growth of the
projects and the revelation of the designs of Eng-
land's Russian foe ! Finally, they have witnessed
a sudden explosion of mutual hostility in England
and in France, destroying security, withering hope,
and opening to both a clouded future of common dan-
ger, disaster, and decay. It is after this preparation
undergone, and these events witnessed, that the United
States proceeded to arraign a servant of the British
crown for murder and arson !

America looked with respect to England ; Nature
yearned in the bowels of the young republicans

* See Appendix, No. I.

Stalcmcnl of ihc 'Cnso.

Tor the UukI of their lathers' graves ; heecUess unci
iiulillereiit were they to all questions of European
policy. This lias been the labour, this the task, to
lead them to despise and then to hate England, to
lead them to be excited in regard to European and
diplomatic affairs, and to think they have com-
t)rehended them, and thereby to be drawn within
the vortex in which the Cabinet of 8t. Petersburg!!
sweeps round thoughts, fortune, and events*.

* At the present' moment that throughout Europe, Asia, and
America, Russia is no h)nger predominant merely in repressing
resistance, but predominant in the command of the j.ctive co-
operation of all the states and nations — at this period of more
intense exultation for her than when her positive dominion shall
be established, the only sign of a spirit still dwelling in men, and
of thoughts or hopes of freedom still preserved througliout the
earth, reaches us from the shores of Circassia, where a handful of
mountaineers at once defeats her armies and defies her influence.
Whence this strange contrast in them — and this mighty reproach
for us ? These people have no government, no press — these
people have no legislating assemblies. In the few hours which I
lived on the shores of Circassia, one of the subjects of most earnest
debate was the means to establish something like a government, and
the effect of it, when established. Haji Oglou, the judge of Soud-
jak Kale district, in debating the question in an assembly of elders,
used these words : — " If a government were established it
would require Russia only to get possession of that government,
or of two or three men in it, whether by corrupting them, or by
deceiving them, to destroy our independence. Turkey is infinitely
more powerful than we are : with a slender portion of her strength,
the materials for instance contained in two or three line-of-battle-
ships, we could defy the power of Russia, and yet Turkey sinks

of Mr. M'Le^

before Russia, and wo stand erect. We tie, ther ^ ire, warned
by this, and we say to ourselves, ' bettei it perli )8 to p^ nig-
gle as wo struggle, than to have a government througli > h
Russia could attack us, not as now with arms that we m but
as with a disease for which there is no cure.' "

That disease is now in the heart of every man belonging to
the Gothic race.

PART II.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE HRIT18H ENVOY
AND THE AMERICAN SECRETARY OF STATE,
RELATIVE TO THE SEIZURE OF MR. M'^LEOD.

((

I hope, Sir, when those papers arc produced, that their
contents will not bo partial, meagre, and unsatisfactory ; that
they will not be confined merely to the correspondence of the
negociating parties, but that they will indicate the views and
policy of the Government." — Lord Palmerston, February bthy
1830.

On the seizure of Mr. MXeod, the British En-
voy at Washington acts upon the instructions pre-
viously sent. Mr. Fox remonstrates, but his
remonstrance serves only to draw from the United
States* Government a declaration which compro-
mises it against Great Britain — which relieves the
state of New York from all separate responsibility,
encourages it to persevere, and renders the general
Government a party to its acts ; while, on separate
grounds, it identifies that Government with these
proceedings. Therefore is the correspondence laid
on the table of the House of Congress, as justifying
the conduct of the Government, and supporting its
case. But as this unfortunate proceeding had
taken place before there was a possibility of re-

Correspondence, ^v.

ceiviiig instructions from home, the Envoy must
have been supposed to have acted without any, and
to this his failure would be attributed. What would
you say if this step was taken by instructions — if
the British Government had, long before, anticipated
such a contingency, and had sent out instructions
to its Envoy to do what he has done ? What
would you say if, after the catastrophe, the British
minister should come down to the House of Com-
mons to declare that Mr. Fox had acted on instruc-
tions ? What would you say if a House of Com-
mons listened in silence and contentment to that
Minister's declaration, that all he then intended to
do, was to send out a repetition of those '^ery in-
structions*? This, however, is the fact. The lan-
guage of Mr. Fox, which we are going to peruse, is,
therefore, that of Lord Palmerston, adopted by him
after it had been used at Washington, and avowed
to have been according to instructions after \i had
failed.

We have seen already that these difficulties arose
first because the British Government had not called
that of America to account for aggressions proceed-
ing from its frontier; and, secondly, from leaving
without reply the demand of the American Govern-
ment for redress. The question then merely is,
has this been done by negligence, or by design ?

* The same deloy that invites the American Government
to aggression, justifies the Foreign Secretary to his nation in
subsequent measures a^\u;ist the American Government. The
Foreign Secretary will be justified in his subsequent violence —
by his first moderation.

31 Com'Sjondcnce hcftrecn the Brilish Envoy

In the words of Lord Palmerston, pronounced through
the moutli of Mr. Fox, which we have now got to
examine, we have additional means of ascertaining to
which of the two this position is to be attributed —
If to negligence, then is our case desperate ; for
no life or energy can remain in the constitution,
if negligence could proceed to such an extent as
this. If to design, then again is our state des-
perate, unless the faculties remain by which this
nation may detect tlmt design in time to prevent its
accomplishment. Sucli a design can be resisted
only by those who detect it, and nations, as indi-
viduals, become equally the instruments of the in-
tention of a minister, when that intention is cri-
minal, and vvhen it is not understood ; for being
criminal, they must explain his motives by that
which is not criminal, and, therefore, not true, and
account for their support by concurring with him
for reasons vvhich are not his. The criminality of a
minister involves, therefore, total perversion of every
fact, and of every reason; and therefore the importance
of the inquijy in which we are engaged, does not
reside in the knowledge of our present position
with America, but in this, that it affords some cine
to understand the Foreign Minister of England.
That vvhich is alarming here is not the facts that
have occurred, but the intention from which they
spring, which, disregarded, all care is useless ;
which, left in doubt, all labour is noxious, all sub-
jects insignificant; and which, unknown, nothing
can be comprehended. This misfortune, and even
war with America would be a fortunate incident.

(tnd the Atneiican Scvietdnj of Slate. 35

if it were to awaken us to the knowledge of treason
at home.

Mr. Fox's first allegation is, that Mr. M^'Leod was
arrested on '^ii pretended charge of arson and murder."

The charge was no pretence. It might be a ques-
tion whether Mr. MXeod was or was not a party to
the transaction, but the charge of the American Go-
vernment was noways doubtful. The criminality of
individuals could be here established by internal and
municipal law only after international admission of
the character of the transaction. Mr. M'^Leod could
be abandoned by the general Government of the
United States to a court of the State of New York
only on the British Government's not adopting the
responsibility of the act with which he was charged.
The United States Government had before asserted
the act of the destruction of the Caroline to be a
crime by the demand for redress, and its assertion
had been submitted to by England by withholding
a reply ; consequently the American Government
had no other course left, on the arrest of Mr.
M^Leod, than that of leaving him to be dealt with
by one of its tribunals : and in doing so it had to
expect and to require from England, submission to
its judgment. The charge on the part of the United
States was most positive. That charge on the part
of Great Britain had been sanctioned by silence,
by time, prescription, and endurance.

The selection, therefore, by the British Envoy, of
the term " pretended,'' was an assumption of an
insulting tone, while it was a justification of the
United States, and an encouragement to its pro-
ceedings.

36 Correspondence between the British Envoy

He continues : — *' It is well-known that the de-
*' struction of the steam-boat Caroline was a public
" act of persons in Her Majesty's service."

The question was, and had been for the last three
years, whether or not England took the responsi-
bility on herself of this " public act of persons in
" Her Majesty's service ?"

Lord Palmerston ( for Mr. Fox's words are
his words ) here appears to declare to the United
States Government that it is against the Govern-
ment of Great Britain that proceedings are to be
taken, and not against individuals. He subsequently
declares, in the House of Commons, that the Ameri-
can Government had the right of proceeding either
against individuals or against the Government. In
America, he keeps the question open— he transmits
a protest to be used only after the act has taken
place, his words are then too weak to intimidate,
and can serve only to encourage. He makes
his declaration in the House of Commons in
time to prevent the American Government from
being, at the critical moment, restrained by any
consideration for the views or measures of the
British Government. While these ambiguous and
adjusted steps which have led the American Govern-
ment into this dilemma, will be afterwards ap-
pealed to as justifying the subsequent violence of
England.

Mr. Fox proceeds : — " This act cannot justly be
made the ground of legal proceedings in the
United States against the individuals concerned,
who were bound to obey the authorities ap-
pointed by their own govcrimient."

i(
a
t(
(t

and the American Secretary of State. 37

Of course not if these individuals acted under the
responsibility ^recognised) by their own govern-
ment ; this w^as what Lord Palmerston refrained
from saying, in reference to which he withheld all
decision; and, therefore, the individuals in question
were amenable to the American tribunals.

Mr. Fox continues : — " The pretended charge
*' rests upon the peijured testimony of certain
" Canadian outlaws and their abettors, who, unfor-
tunately for the peace of that neighbourhood,
are still permitted by the authorities of the
" State of New York to infest the Canadian fron-
« tier."

If such were the acts of the State of New York,
how is it that they are not made the subject of official
remonstrance ? How is it that every complaint of
Britain is reserved, so that by reserve offence is pro-
cured, and then the first sin is brought forth as a
countercharge and as an insult. Could it be accident-
ally that the aggressive party invariably is invited by
submission, and that the aggrieved party invariably
brings forward prior injuries in lieu of a demand for
satisfaction ? Can it be by accident that invariably
an appearance of advocating national interests cloaks
their sacrifice, and that concession follows insult as
its shadow ? Throughout the whole of the Boundary
Transactions — of the Frontier events connected with,
them — throughout every passage of that momentous
discussion of Great Britain with Russia in regard to
Persia, these same characters have been exposed, and
established on official evidence. In every other case
will the same equally be found. Every where, matter
of Fact is reduced to vague Discussion, and Dis-

38 Correspondence between the British Enrol/

((

ciission reduced to a simulated interchange of Insult
and of Wrong.

Mr. Fox continues — " That act was the public act
" of persons obeying the constituted authorities of
*' Her Majesty's province. The national government
" of the United States thought themselves called
upon to remonstrate against it; and a remonstrance
which the President did accordingly address to
Her Majesty's Government is still, / believe, a
pending subject of diplomatic discussion between
Her Majesty's Government and the United States
Legation in London."
Mr. Fox acts on instructions, he writes by instruc-
tions ; how is it that Mr. Fox does not know the
diplomatic position of the two governments ?

He concludes thus: — " As the case is naturally
** occasioning a great degree of excitement and in-
dignation within the British frontier, I earnestly
hope that it may be in your power to give me an
" early and satisfactory answer to the present rcpre-
" sentation.''^

Could it be supposed, that the Envoy who
penned this passage, had received instructions?
Could he have any idea of an intention in the
British Government in this matter, — of rights of
England therein injured, or of obligations on Eng-
land to vindicate its own honour, or to protect her
subjects or her servants ?

But whence arises the necessity for the British
Envoy making any representation? Does it not
arise from Lord Palmerston withholding all reply
to the demand of the United States ? But what
conclusion must we arrive at if we find that

and the American Secretary of State. 39

while withholding that answer he instructs to make
this representation, whensoever the contingency
might arise, which his reply could alone have
prevented ? He foresees the danger, takes no
means to ward it off, and does take measures to
give it a permanent character.

And what is the value of this document? Or,
to use his own word, of this " representation ?"
It is to demand the liberation of Mr. M^Leod ; or,
rather, it is a request, that the American Govern-
ment may " take steps to obtain his liberation."
If the American Government was not guilty of
a crime in seizing that gentleman, his liberation
could not be called for as a matter of right ; and if
it was a crime to seize Mr. M'^Leod, then — to de-
mand his liberation without demandimj reparation for
his seizure, was tantamount to justifying the seizure,
and was a bar to any right of England to obtain his
liberation.

This step is taken on instructions. How, then,
is all allusion to any authority from home so care-
fully avoided ? How, in acting according to instruc-
tions, should he avoid saying so, unless he had
been instructed to conceal the fact ? And wha*
could the object be of such concealment, unless to
deaden the effect of such remonstrance as he was
commissioned to make ?

The reply of Mr. Forsyth is what the circum-
stances give us to anticipate, and what the repre-
sentations of Mr. Fox lead us to expect. He at
once declares the case of Mr. M'^Leod to be clearly
within the competency of the local tribunals, and

40 Correspondence between the lir'Uish Envoy

the transaction out of which it arose, to have been
" AN INVASION, in time of peace, of the territory of
" the United States." How could such a position be
brought about between two governments ? How
could the existence of such crimes be tolerated ?
How could the communication of such charges be
suppressed ? How could negociations exist between
two governments that thought or acted thus in
respect the one to the other ? How could such
statements be interchanged after three years of
negociation ?

The United States had before demanded redress
for the violation of the neutrality of its territory — it
now charges Great Britain with an invasion !
How could the first demand, how the transmutation,
be made or tolerated ? The British Minister, by
abstaining from demanding reparation for the inva-
sion of the British territory, had invited a charge of
crime, by opening the occasion for a demand for
redress. By the omission to establish the inter-
national character of that transaction the Govern-
ment of the United States was compelled, in
the exercise of right, to leave the result to a
court of law, as a question between individuals.
Then from the mode left powerless to resist
the public impulse of its people, which could
have been repressed only by the establishment of
the rights of the case, and by the decided attitude
of Britain. The demand for redress comes — the
British Minister withholds a reply — the United
States Government is again compelled to advance,
because placed in the alternative of withdrawing

ami ihe American Secrelai'i/ of Slate.

from the demand which it had made, or of proceeding
to such acts as should compel England to declare
herself, and it was impossible to withdraw while
England gave no reply. The American Government,
invited a second time, takes now two steps, — it de-
signates the act as an invasion ; it proceeds against
one of the parties as a felon !

The American Government, starting from tlie
most outrageous wrong inflicted on Great Britain
in the events of December 1837, arrives at that
point where it has mixed up in a common charge
against Great Britain felony and war. In advancing
from the first to the last position, it has not pro-
ceeded against resistance on the part of the British
Government. It has proceeded, not only unresisted
but invited ; it has proceeded, not only invited, but
compelled to advance.

Had this position proceeded from an intention on
the part of the United States Government, it would
have commenced with declaring that its citizens
were not to be treated as felons by the tribunals of
Upper Canada. It would have at once, and not
after the delay of months, charged against England
violation of its neutrality, and it would have at
once made the charge of *' invasion." It was
England, by receding, who drew on the United
States; it was not the United States that, by
pressing forward, constrained England to recede.
In this transaction, therefore, the United States has
performed merely the part of an instrument in the
hands of the British Government, that is, of the

Ic Correspondeuce hebt'ecn the British Envoi/

British Minister. If such had not been the inten-
tion of the British Minister, coukl it have been in
the power of the American Minister to continue
in the following terms : —

" U the destruction of the Caroline was a public
act of persons in Her Majesty's service, obeying
the order of their superior authorities, this fact has
not been before communicated to the Government
of the United States by a person authorised to
" make the admission."

Well may he say admission. He comprehends
the amount of the sacrifice of the position of
England ; but not that that sacrifice was the
success, and that weakness the triumph of lier
minister. He goes on to state that it is imma-
terial, whether or not the British Government ad-
mits its responsibility (now its criminality) in that
transaction ; that the Court of New York would
decide whether the criminality of the British Go-
vernment might screen Mr. M'^Leod ; whether the
objections of Mr. Fox, a.id the plea, put in by
him in extenuation, should or should not be allowed.
The following are the remarkable words which he
uses : —

" It will be for the court which has taken cogni-
zance of the ofTence with which Mr. M'^Leod is
charged, to decide upon its validity (the admission
of the British Government's responsibility) when
legally established before it."
Before dismissing this passage, I must remark that
this statement is made after accepting the words of

((

find the American Secretanj of Stale. 43

Mr. Fox as an admission , by " a person qualijied to
" make it,' of the responsibility of the British
Government for the destruction of the Caroline.
As the British Government itself had not vindicated
its own acts or character — as it had allowed pro-
ceedings, during nearly three years, to be formally
taken in a court of law — as it had allowed its acts, by
the highest authorities of the state of New York, to
be publicly denounced as felony — it could not now
bring forward its own responsibility except for the
purpose of submitting more completely the crown
of England, in the person of Mr. M'^Leod, to trial
before that court.

Mr. Forsyth's dispatch concludes with these
words : —

" The President deems this to be a proper occa-
" sion to remind the Government of Her Britannic
" Majesty that the case of the Caroline has been
" long since brought to the attention of Her Ma-
" jesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, who, up to this day, has not communi-
cated his decision thereupon. It is hoped that
the Government of Her Majesty will perceive the
importance of no longer leaving the Government
of the United States uninformed of its views and
intentions upon a subject which has naturally
produced much exasperation, and which has led
to such grave consequences."
Mr. Fox is now startled at finding that his words
are construed into an admission of the adoption by
the Government of the destruction of the Caroline.

((

44 (Jitn'csjxniih'Ha' hettrecu Ihc British Knvoy

He consults liis instructions, and the value of some
ambiguous terms having now come out, he finds
that he has committed himself by his incidental
reference to a " well-known" fact.

He answers by a long and confused dispatch,
repeating reasons why tlic destruction of the Caro-
line should be considered juec and proper, declares
that such v*ere the opinions of " Her Majesty's
authorities on the spot;'' then attempting to draw a
distinction, or assuming, rather, to have a distinction
drawn, between the act (the destruction of the steam-
boat Caioline) and the question pending between
the two Governments respecting the act — he says,
I am not authorised to pronounce the decision
of Her Majesty's Government upon that remon-
strance, but I have felt myself bound to record,
in the meantime, the above opinion, in order
to protest, in the most solemn manner, against
tlie spirited and loyal conduct of a party of
Her Majesty's officers and people being qualified,
through an unfortunate misapprehension, as I
believe, of the facts, with the appellation of out-
" rage or of murder."

He records a protest against the appellation (!) of
outrage and murder being used to qualify the con-
duct of a party of Her Majesty's officers—rz/Zer Mr.
Forsyth has accepted his former letter as an ad-
mission that the act itself was that of the British
Government. Is not this the disavowal of the Go-
vernment's share in tliat act ? He retracts, therefore,
the admission that he has made, at least he does all

((

and the American Scrretari/ of Stale.

he can in the way of retractation. The trouble ol'
his mind is shown in the incoherence of his lan-
guage no less than in the arrangement of the
thoughts and in the multiplicity of words. What
had '* pronounce" to do with the subject ? It was
inconsistent with the character of the actors, and
wholly inapplicable to the situation ; it is one of
those words employed by men who deceive others
or who deceive themselves, and who do so solely by
ability in the selection of confused terms to conceal
from themselves the confusion of their minds, or
from others the dishonesty of their purpose. This
retractation could not have been made knowing that
what he asserted was true, unless because his in-
structions prohibited his making such an admission ;
nor in retracting, would he, as he has done, have
reiterated the statement, unless his instructions had
been adjusted to produce confusion.

Thus, then, the American Government, three years
after the occurrence, had no admission by the Bri-
tish Government that the destruction of the Caroline
was its act, and it was now placed at once in posses-
sion of this admission and of its retractation. The
option was given to it of using the one or the other,
and by such apparent pusillanimity of opposition,
was encouragement afforded to advance. That this
was the intention of the Foreign Secretary in the in-
structions that he sent to Mr. Fox, is further proved
by the sanction given in the House of Commons to
his acts, and by the avowal that he had acted by in-
structions when that was unknown, anel when, aftei:

40 (orrespon(fcncc helfnrn the liiilish Envoij

failure, there seemed every motive for tlie conceal-
ment of that fact.

We have here a very remarkable case, one on
which Lord Palmerston, antic ipiUinij a contingency,
instructs beforehand. The controversy arises out of
the refusal of a reply to a demand of the United
States Government. Lord Palmerston prepares the
Envoy at Washington for this event, by instructions
which do not notice the demand.

These instructions are — to protest against the pro-
ceedings after rvaU'mg until they have taken place— to
demand the liberation of the man seized, on grounds
that justify his capture. The instructions sent could
have had effect, as being known to be instructions
from the British Government ; he is instructed to
conceal the fact that he acted on mstructions. Con-
sequently, these instructions sent out to meet the
anticipated case were, in every point, calculated
to frustrate the effect of their ostensible inten-
tion. Put forward as the uninstructed words of the
Envoy, and coinciding with the absolute silence and
indifference of the Government itself they could only
produce exasperation or contempt. But when it
should afterwards be know^n, as Lord Palmerston
took care to reveal, that these were words uttered
upon instruction*, what must be the effect ? What

C( -A-

* New York^ January 15tk.

" In a debate wliich incidentally occurred in the senate of the

United States, on the 8th instant, Mr. Clay expressed the opinion

that ' the idea of the probability of a rupture with Great Britain

■was entirely unfounded.' He said that the language used by Mr.

and the uitncnvfin Sccrchiru oj' Shtlo.

then the object of this avovviil ? Can there here
remain a sha(h)\v of a(loul)t that the British Minister
acted to bring about that vviiich has occurred ?

We must now examine if in every point this
supposition is borne out. We must exann'ne, wlic-
ther by sending no instructions, other injuries might
not have accrued — whether to remedy the evil,
other instructions ought to have been sent ; that is
to say, whether the instructions can be exi)lained as
(Urected to prevent some evil which has not hap-
pened ; whether the instructions were not exactly
calculated to effect tliat which has occurred.
Let us suppose then Mr. M'^Leod arrested, and tlie
Envoy uninstructed. What must have happened?
The event would come upon him without prepara-
tion ; his indignation would have been aroused — he
would have expressed himself strongly — he would
have treated with scorn and contempt the idea of
the jurisdiction of a separate state — he would have
entered into no detail, committed himself to no

Fox in his correspondcnco was very strong, and 'such as ho
tliought ought not to liavc been employed without instruction
from his government ; but he understood that the whole corres-
pondence, on the part of the minister, was without instructions,
and he was not disposed to put himself in a passion on account of
language used under such circumstances. The affair of the Ca-
roline he considered as one of much delicacy ; and it remained to
be seen whether the order of the British authorities to capture
the vessel was not intended to be limited to the icaters over ichick
they had jurisdiction^ which might have been justifiable; but her
capture and destruction at Fort Schlosser, on our own shore, was
another and a very different nuitter."

48 Corrcdpomlence bcbrecn the British Envot/

statements of any kind ; and the reference to the
decision from home would have kept the Govern-
ment and the public of the United States to a cer-
tain degree in suspense. With no instructions, the
British Envoy must have done more and written
less^ instructed, he has both failed in that which
he attempted, and committed himself in regard to
that with which he had nothing to do. But he has
not failed in that which was required from him ;
he has, through misconception of his orders, done
that which the Minister wished him to do, since he
has been justified, and his acts confirmed, and
the Minister has publicly avowed that all he did
was done by instruction.

Now let us see what ought to have been the na-
ture of instructions which could, in this case, be of
use ; though this is an impossible case, as, while the
American demand remained unreplied to, no instruc-
tions could alter the position of England. But let
us suppose, that the British Minister had anticipated
the seizure of a British officer, on the grounds of
participation in the destruction of the Caroline,
without there having been made any demand of
redress from the American Government. What, in
such case, could the instructions be? Must they
not have been to declare that the destruction of the
Caroline was an act of the Government, and that
any proceedings against an individual, not only
would be resented by the British Government as
such, but that it was an outrage for whiclf'the British
GoNernment instantly demanded redress. This not

and the American Secretary of State. 40

said, nothing was said. Wherefore, then, this not
being said, send instructions ? Why anticipate the
case, if not to do that which it required ? The
English Government avows that it anticipates the
seizure of one of its subjects after the American Go-
vernment has demanded satisfaction — and it sends out
— what? Instructions to its own Envoy, and takes no
step with the United States Government ! This was
not negligence, because instructions were sent ; and if
it was not by negligence, it was by intention, that
the American Government was left without reply.
The instructions to the Envoy were, therefore, sent
with the same view that the reply to the American
Government was not given, and the intention is
further confirmed by the result obtained, and which
both concurred to bring about.

Again, had those instructions been with any in-
tention of meeting the difficulty, the Envoy would
have been armed so as to meet the arguments, or
tlie assumptions of the United States Government.
That Government, it was known full well, would
plead the separate jurisdiction of the state of New
York. Had not then the Envoy to be instructed to
declare, in the name of Great Britain, that to talk
of the separate jurisdiction of a Court of New York
was an insult wliich England could not notice ?

Here is a long chain of evidence, commencing
with the absence of any demand upon the United
States, in consequence of the transactions that led to
the destruction of the Caroline — then a demand of
satisfaction from America left unreplied to — then

50 Correspondence between the British Enrol/

instructions sent out which should corroborate the
aggressions of the United States, while calculated to
satisfy people in England that something had been
done — instructions to protest against the act so
arranged, that the protest should not appear to be
made by the British Government — then the libera-
tion of the individual is demanded on grounds that
justify his seizure; and after all these, comes the
leaving of the British Minister unsupplied with the
means of meeting that case, which it was evident
the American Government would put forth. There
is not a single link which is not conclusive either as
to idiotcy or as to guilt. But it is impossible to
admit the first as the solution of two or more acts
which coincide in intention. But I will take the
last ; and as it may appear, perhaps, the most insig-
nificant of these acts, the withholding of the neces-
sary declaration against the separate jurisdiction of
the State of New York*, and I will prove in it alone
the guilty intention of the whole transaction.

If the British Foreign Secretary had upon another
occasion, the violation, for instance, of British terri-
tory by American citizens, admitted difficulties of
constitutional action of the American State, as the
justification of the American Government for leaving
such acts unpunished ; if the Briiish Foreign Secre-
tary had himself suggested that excuse to the Ame-
rican Government for not punishing this outrage —

-.(
((

a
n
n

it
((
i(
((
a

* This declaration will be made after it can be no longer of use
to prevent the evil, but when it will bo of use to aggravate it.

{

ar.d the American Secretary of Stale. 51

if he had suggested that excuse before the American
Government had refused to punish it, — if he had put
it forward as the ground for not requiring on the part
of the British Government such punishment, — would
you not then see clearly that the suggestion of this
excuse, to encourage direct aggression, and the
leaving the British Envoy without the means of
meeting the same excuse, when put forward to jus-
tify the present act, were co-ordinate parts of the
same design ? Such design, is it not criminal ?
What I have stated is no supposition, it is fact. On
the 19th November, 1837, he wrote as follows to
Mr. Fox : —

" With reference to your dispatch of the 25th
of January last, relative to the outrage that was
committed in October, 1835, within the Canadian
frontier, by certain citizens of the State of New
Hampshire, — -/ have to instruct you to point out to
the American Secretary of State, the unjustifiable
violation of territory, indisputably British, which
was committed on the occasion referred to ; to
express a conviction that such an act must incur
the disapprobation of the President ; and to say
that, if it has not been punished, its impunity must
have arisen from some insurmounlahle difficulties
of constitutional action*. ^^

-.(

((

* The following remarks on this passage are in the " Exposi-
tion of the Boundary Dififcrenccs," p. 64.

" It is a novel procedure in diplomacy, to suggest an excuse
for an injury, as the means by which redress is to be obtained !
To advance an hypothesis in an irrelevant i^^'tter, and to cast an

Correspondence f ^c.

imputation on the constitutional character of an independent
state, has, I believe, been hitherto unheard of in international
correspondence. So complete a displacement of the question at
issue — so entire a departure from the forms of the subject, and
the style of the office — so artful a leading away of the mind of
the reader from the intention of the writer, and from the effect
of the communication — could not have fortuitously presented
themselves to the writer's mind ; nor could ideas so disjointed,
and propositions so unnatural, have been brought together in a
single phrase, except by an ominous concert of ability and
design."

See also Appendix, No. VII., where it will be found that
Lord Palmerston proposed to the United States Government that
the State of Maine should be "a consenting party" to certain
adjustments respecting the Boundary Differences.

5:}

dent

ioual

n at

and

id of

effect

nted

nted,

in a

and

that

irtain

PART III.

DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

" What is the condition of a country, whose Representatives
depend for a knowledge of its position on vague rumours, that
reach it from abroad ?" — Lord Palmerston, June \st^ 1829.

Supposing a citizen of the United States seized
by England, put in prison, brought to trial for his
life, because, being an officer of the United States
Government, he had executed an act commanded him
by authority — how many hours would elapse be-
tween the arrival of the intelligence in the United
States, and a message from the President to Congress ?
What would be the movements throughout the
wide belt intervening between the Gulphs of Mexico
and the St. Lawrence, as the intelligence rolled
across from the Atlantic to the Pacific ? What would
be the terms of the address of the Senate, — what the
language of the dispatch of the Government, — what
the celerity of the flight of the messenger ?

Mr. M'^Leod is arrested on the twelfth of No-
vember, the British Government must have received
intelligence of the fact in the beginning of December.
Tlie Parliament opens January 26th. No message
is sent down from the Crown, — no declaration is
made by the Minister ! Correspondence connected

Debatr in the House of Commons,

witli the transaction is given to the House of Con-
gress — it reaches this country by the public press;
and questions are thereupon put to the Minister
in tlie House of Commons on the 8th of Feb-
ruary. The trial, on which hung the life of the
individual, in whose person this whole nation was
to be brought to judgment, was to take place in the
beginning of March, and on the 8th of February,
the Foreign Secretary being then, for more than two
months, in possession of the fact, no instructions
had been sent, and the instructions to be sent that
night were declared to be the repetition only of
instructions which were already in America, in
face of which the act had been committed, and the
full effect of which had been alreadv tried in vain !
What words do our language possess to give
utterance to the thoughts which such acts inspire ?
What use of comment? what need of analysis ?
Why call in documents ? Why trace collateral
proof ? That which is in evidence, alas ! is not the
intentions of the man, but it is the perfect imbecility
of the race in the midst of whom such a position
can be revealed, without one explosion of indigna-
tion from shore to shore.

It is in the following words that the British
Minister replies : —

" The subject was one of extreme interest, and
" which, from the great delicacy of its nature,
involving considerations of a very grave and se-
rious character between two great countries,
" should be touched upon with great reserve."

Debate in the House of Commons.

on-
ess;
ster
eb-
the
was
the
ary,
two
ions
that
of
in
the
tin !
^ive

re ?

Id i'

This semblance of fear and of alarm, allows the
American Government to think they have made the
discovery of consciousness in Lord Palmerston, of
weakness in his case, and of powerlessness in his
position. He then boldly proceeds to justify the
American Government.

'* The American Government undoubtedly might
have considered this transaction either as a
transaction to be dealt with between the two
Go'- .Tii... Us, by demand for redress by one,
to be granted or refused oy the other, and dealt
tvith accordingly ; or, it might have been con-
sidered as the British authorities consider pro-
ceedings between American citizens on the
British side of the border, as matter to be dealt
with by the local authorities*."
A Minister of the Crown opens his mouth to
establish a parallel between outlaws and its meri-
torious servants, — establishes that parallel in face of
proceedings against them by a foreign government
as felons ! — and a senate listens !

Has not England possessions — has she not
subjects and citizens in America ? Is not the
principal portion of her strength beyond these
islands, rooted on the continent of America ? What

* " When it is asserted that the case of M^Leod is similar to
that of the fellows who without orders from any responsible
authority — nay, in direct violation of your laws, — made hostile
incursions into Canada, there must be a great lack of discrimina-
tion, or something worse."

♦ New York Journal of Commerce.

DehiUe in Ihv House of CommonK.

will be the effect of these words to the north of
the frontiers of the United States ? What the effect
of this comparison upon the men to whom the de-
fence of the British po.«sessions was entrusted — on
the body to which these volunteers belonged, — on
the provincial governments which they obeyed — on
the North American colonies whi^h they defended,
and of which they constitute a part ? I shrink from
the attempt of calling up in my own mind the
feeling with which as a North American subject of
the British Crown, I should read those words as
spoken by an Englishman, uttered on the soil of
England, echoing within the precincts of St. Ste-
phen's, and listened to by those possessed of the
respect of millions, and ruling the destinies of the
mightiest empire beneath the sun.

The Foreign Secretary proceeds : — '^ But the
" American Govern 3nt chose the former course
" by treating the matter as one to be decided
" between the two Governments — "

What continuation could there be to the passage
but this ? " and having adopted that course, it
" is impossible for it now to proceed against indi-
" viduals." No, the phrase concludes :

" — and this is the ground on which they are

ENTITLED to demand redress from the British

Government, for the acts of its subjects."

Is not then this man, the nominal Minister of the

British nation — the advocate of the United States ?

But this is the man who has led the United States

into the actual hazard of its existence, he must, there-

Di'liate in the House of Commons.

le-

ed,

)te-

the

fore, 1)0 its enemy — he is both ! He is the foe of its
peace — and fox that purpose is he the advocate of
its injustice. He is for the United States that which
he is for England — that which he is for the world.

Having, in these few sentences, given the explicit
sanction of the British Government to the act of
America; having given, by pronouncing them, in its
presence, the sanction to these transactions of the
House of Commons, he then concludes with saying
that he was " sure the House would think with him,
" that the matter was one of such extreme difficulty,
*' that it woidd be improper for him to enter into
" further rem^arks or ohservations.''

Mr. Hume then rises, and declares that the state-
ments the noble Lord has made " are not exactly
" consistent" with the information of which he is
in possession, and entreats the House not to go
further in the matter until they are possessed of
all the facts ; and he expresses his surprise that the
British Government had not given a reply to the
demand of America. To this Lord Palmerston
answers, by saying that the American Government
had instructed its Minister '* not to press for a
" reply y .

The British Government, in replying, must either
have given satisfaction or refused it ; and in either
case further proceedings were barred. By leaving
the demand without reply, the United States Go-
vernment became possessed of the power, dangerous,
but not, therefore, less desired, of proceeding against
British citizens, of exacting redress, or even of

Debate in the House of Commons,

making reprisals against the State. Time and pre-
scription became no bar, because, while the British
Government withheld a reply, it was not in its
power to plead either. From the moment the Ame-
rican Government obtains this })osition, it preserves
it ; that is to say, it does not press for that reply,
which, once given, would annihilate this power. It
suffices for Lord Palmerston to quote this proof of
the advantage he had yielded to a state which he
was engaged in the process of converting into an
enemy, to close the mouth of those who questioned.
He accounts for the injury, by saying that it is
done ; and those who charge him with negliyence,
he meets — knowing them — by daring them to dis-
cover his intention.

He further declares, that

*' The American Government had disavowed the
" acts of those citizens who had taken part in these
proceedings, and that, until, therefore, the British
Government disowned those persons, as the
" American Government disavowed their citizens
in the other case, he conceived that the American
Government had adopted an international respon-
sibility in the late detention of Mr. M^^Leod, and
could not, there/ore, change their ground upon
this question." -

He had taken the ground at Washington, that the
American Government had not the right to proceed
against the individuals. He then declares in the
House of Commons that it has the right to proceed
in the one or the other manner ; but he has practically

(£

((

Debate in the House of Commons.

sanctioned hoth ; he has not treated the seizure of
Mr. M^Leod as an outrage upon Enghind* ; and he
has admitted, by silence, the demand of redress
against the Government. Mr. Forsyth l)as, more-
over, put forward the explicit declaration, that the
American Government has a right to proceed by
both methods. That declaration officially made,
and published to the world, is met by Lord Pal-
merston with the declaration that unquestionably
the American Government had the right of proceed-
ing in either one or the other manner. If the Ame-
rican Government had the right of proceeding at
all, it had the faculty of choice. Lord Palmerston
further declares that the instructions which he had
now sent to Mr. Fox were the same as those which
had already drawn from Mr. Forsyth this very
declaration, to which, under those instructions, Mr.
Fox had had nothing to reply.

Thus has Lord Palmerston managed at once to
sanction (for the moment) the proceedings against
Mr. M'^Leod in America, and to leave grounds for
after-proceedings against the American Government
for that act. This is the object of this ambiguity ;
his ambiguous words being interpreted in different
ways by the American Government and by the
British Parliament.

B'.it both these proceedings are against the Eng-
lish Government since the act was the English
Government's ; there was an alternative as to the

* Not until the United States Government was committed.

Debate in the Honse of Commons.

modes of proceeding — nor was this an alternative
— there were two modes of procedure ; but there
was only one party proceeded against. Lord Pal-
merston confounds his hearers by simulated alter-
natives in a dilemma which had no existence.
His hearers, confounded in this maze, and unable
to see, labour to find a justification for his acts
so as to justify their own blindness; hence the
expression recently current amongst Members
of Parliament, " Lord Palmorston has hung the
" American Government between the horus of a
*' dilemma."

But let us look at the separate terms employed
in this wonderful sentence.

It is not the seizure of Mr. M'^Leod, but his
" detention;'' it is not his " detention" alone, but
" late,'' as if the time were gone by. " Lhitil those
" persons were disavowed," as if there was a ques-
tion respecting their disavowal ; then he doubtingly
*' conceives" that the United States had " adopted"
a " responsibility," and then the responsihiUty is
" international." There is international justice and
injustice ; but international responsibility cannot
be, because responsibility has reference to superiors.
Let us set down the words which the hearer was to
suppose he heard — '* The American Government has
*' been guilty of international injustice; it cannot,
*' therefore, justly change its ground." Is comment
requisite here ? — or do you think that accident has
arranged these terms — and that there is no intention
in any thing which is above your comprehension ?

Dehdie in the Housa of (^ommons.

The Ainericjui Government had changed no
ground — had never s[)oken or thought of any such
tiling. The American Government had originally
taken criminal steps against the agents of the
British Crown ; that was its first, as that had been
its last step ; the first which it threatened, and the
last which it executed, which England had not
resisted, but which she had encouraged. But no
sooner have the words, " The American Govern-
" ment cannot, I conceive, chanrje their ground,"
fallen from the lips of the Foreign Secretary, than
the House of Commons calls out * hear, hear !"
These sounds were not to be lost \ipon the American
Government* — and at thi^ poii ' the d'^fencG of the
Foreign Secretary was cut short b^^ ilie leader of
the opposition, who arose to b;;' rescue, by putting
an irrelevant question upon another subject.

On the following day, the debate is resumed ia
the House of Commons, and the Foreign Secretary
then puts it in possession of further information ; he
tells it that " a case of a somewhat similar nature
" had happened, or was about to happen, a year
" or a year and a bnlf ago," on which occasion he
had sent out instruct*' >r.s to the Envoy at Washing-
ton, " laying down what he conceived to be sound
" principles in such an emergency !"

Has not Britain reason to rejoice in the activity
of her servants, in the foresight of her Government ?

* See Portfolio, Vol. I., Despatch of Prince Lieveii to Count
Nesselrode, 1st June, 1829, where another " hear, hear," of the
House of Commons, is quoted in triumph and exultation.

Debate in the House of Commons.

If disasters befall her, or disgrace overwhelm her, it
is surely not because she had been deficient in ac-
tivity, in charities, and in doctrine ; and if she has
reason to complain of aught, it is that human nature
is perverse, and that fortune is her debtor.

During the first day's debate, Lord Palmerston
avoids to recognise the destruction of the Caroline
as an act of the British Government. By the mere
fact of keeping them in suspense during four-and-
twenty hours, he converts a public act, simple and
notorious, which had happened three years before,
into the leading object of interest and of attention,
at this critical moment ; every other portion of the
transaction is thus obscured before their eyes, and
no one thinks of inquiring why he had not replied
to the demand of the American Government, why,
in anticipating this case, he had not sent such
instructions as were fitting, kc. He holds up to
them the doubt of the recognition of the destruction
of the Caroline ; and at this target are aimed the
shafts of his nervertheless adversaries. On the second
day he avows that act, quells opposition, and
gathers in his antagonists' weapons. On the
avowal of the destruction of the Caroline, a cheer
immediately ascends from both sides of the House,
the one party glorying in the decision of its
leader, the other exulting in the energy which it
has displayed in compelling from him this admission,
All are ready again to treat with ridicule and con-
tempt any one who ventures to doubt, or who
dares to gainsay ; and another sound issuitig from

Debate in the House of Commons.

that brainless organ of an infatuated people, is
blown across the Atlantic, to confirm the belief of
that insanity in the British State, which always
precedes, because it alone can bring — a nation's
fall.

But this is not the sole reason for which he has
withheld, on the first day of the debate, the recog-
nition by the Government of the destruction of the
Caroline. These two debates, though following
for England at the interval of a few hours, will
follow for America at the end of two weeks*.
Look then at the effect of leaving the United
States in that suspense for a fortnight in which
the House of Commons had been left for a day.

The debate on this second day closes with a
declaration by Lord Palmerston, that the recog-
nition of the destruction of the Caroline had been
(kiticially made through the British Envoy at
Washington to the United States Government, and
to the United States Minister in London. Without
any knowledge upon the subject, I should judge
these assertions to be false, because it would not
occur to Lord Palmerston, in speaking to the Bri-
tisli Nation, to say that which is true. But we
know the falsehood of both statements, from the
documents given to the American Congress. But the

* The two debates did reach America together. This docs not
alter the fact, that on the night of the 9th it was not anticipated
that the morning papers of the 10th woukl be in time for the
steamer.

Debate in the House of Commons.

House of Commons was perfectly satisfied vvitli the
declaration, and there the matter ended, without a
motion for impeachment — for inquiry, without a vote
of censure, without an address to the crown, without
a demand for papers, without a suggestion, and the
subject was dismissed because there was no question
before the House !

It comes before the House of Commons in these
two nights' discussion : —

That no reply had been given by Lord Pal-
merston during three years to a demand of the
United States, which allovved the charge of arson
and murder to hang over the Crown of Great
Britain — and there was not a Member of the
House found to see the meaning of such silence, or
to utter one word of reproach or of indignation : —

That the case of the seizure by the United
States of a servant of tlie British Crown, as justi-
ciable under that charge, had been anticipated,
and that Instructions were sent out specially to
plead before the United States. There was not a
Member found in the House to understand the
meaning of that Instruction, or to express one word
of reproach or of indignation : —

That the 0<ivcrnment had sanctioned the act of the
destruction of the Caroline, and had not made use of
that sanction for the only purpose for which it was
required, the declaration of it to the United States;
and further, a false statement that it had been so
communicated, and there was not a man in the
House to understand the meaning of that su})prc8-

Debate in the House of Commons.

sioii or that falsehood — not one found to utter one
word of reproach or of indignation : —

That hours, days, weeks, and months, must have
elapsed from the receipt of the intelligence of the
seizure of that subject of the British Crown, without
a communication made to Parliament, and without
a step taken with respect to the United States ; and
there was not a man in that House to understand
the meaning of that delay, or to utter one word of
reproach or of indignation : —

That the Minister placed servants of the Crown
who had exposed their life in performance of
duly, on the same level with the bandits and the
outlaws, against whom they had been employed,
and exposed by this declaration these servants to be
tried us felons by a foreign judicatory ; and there
was not found in that House a single head to
comprehend the object of that declaration, or a
tongue to utter one word of reproach or of indig-
nation !

Before that Senate came the most atrocious out-
rage ever recorded in the page of history — committed
by a foreign state against a British subject ; judi-
cially asserted by a foreign court against a func-
tionary of the British Empire ; diplomatically
asserted by the United States against Great Britain.
Before it came evidence that this had been brought
about by its own Minister, through a process.
Before it comes proof of reiterated falsehood of that
Minister in the process itself, and in the exi)lanation
respecting that process given to tiie House. In its

Debate in the House of Commons.

very presence are directed to the United States words
of sanction and encouragement — and these men,
lying shadows of Hfe, knowing not what they
did, and accounting not what they were, sit
around unmoved ; they listen with eai's of flesh
but with hearts of stone — nay ! they exult and
rejoice, making a noise with their tongues — a
noise to fill the fiends with laughter, and to make
angels weep. Must not that state perish, whose
fate is yielded into such hands ? or, rather, is not
that state unworthy to live where such are to be
found ? Yet at that moment one awful word pro-
nounced, the cry of alarm raised by a single voice,
and the traitorous spell might have been broken,
and this people's trance dissolved.

But England is divided into two parties ; if the
one party supports, the other party opposes the
Government. How is it, then, that we have here
the opponents of the Government not coming for-
ward as a body to denounce this act? If it is a
party, if it is an opposition, was this not the time
to appear as such ? Was not this the moment
when resistance was not faction — when union was a
crime ? . ,

Far from that, it is the leader of the opposition
vvho interposes to save the Minister from his own
supporters. Not interposes by argument or by state-
ment, but by bald interruption. Sir Robert Peel
interrupts the discussion ; first, by questions re-
specting the reward of officers wounded in tliat

Debate in the House of Commons.

assault, which leads to a reply from Lord John
Itussell that he knows nothing on the subject. Sir
11. Peel again interposes with questions regarding
the affairs of Persia. Mr. O'Connell, amidst the
cheers of both sides of the House, calls it back to
the question before it ; and then again does Sir R.
Peel, with the assistance of the Speaker, carry the
House back again to the affairs of Persia. He
interrupts the discussion upon a subject, pressing
and instant, to introduce one distant, remote, long
known, and equally long neglected. Were the
affairs of Persia those in which Sir Robert Peel had
habitually shown interest, upon which he had ex-
pressed conviction, or regarding which he had
taken care? The interruption can, therefore, be
accounted for neither by indifference to the subject
interrupted, nor by the importance of that introduced.
If not, was this sudden interruption prompted
by a consciousness of the necessity of attending
to our difficulties in the East, by this evidence
of the insecurity of our interest in the West?
The thorough examination of that which was before
them, alone could afford the means for the resto-
ration, or the comprehension, of either. If we
can find nothing in the transaction, which can
account for the interruption, we must look for the
cause elsewhere ; we must suppose either that he
acted through the consciousness of a common
responsibility with the Minister, or through con-
sciousness of so much danger in the state, as
to make it a matter of expediency to prevent

Dchatc. in the House of Commona.

the eyes of the nation from being opened to
its danger? If so, that condition in which Athens
stood, wlien the commonwealth was betrayed,
" neither willingly, nor ignorantly, but from a
" desperate purpose of yielding to the fate of a
" constitution judged to be irrevocably lost" — has
come for England ? A condition in which the
defenders of the state, some from intention, and
some from misjudging, become alike its enemies
and its destroyers.

The debate closed by an assertion of Lord Palmer-
ston, that the recognition, by the British Government,
of the destruction of the Caroline, had been officially
announced to the representative of the United States
in this country. This statement is false; but if it is
false, how is it that that gentleman does not expose
it ? It is currently reported, that Mr. Stevenson had
declared that he would expose this falsehood*. But
could any man, in the slightest degree conversant
with diplomatic transactions, — in the slightest degree
understanding the position to which America has
been brought, — in any degree understanding the man
who is the Minister of England, suppose that such
an exposure was possible?

A diplomatic servant cannot act upon his own

* On tlie arrival of the first intelligence of the destruction of
the Caroline, Lord Pahuerston casually remarked to Mr. Steven-
son, that he supposed the English Government would adopt the
act ; when the m.atter came officially before him, he refused all
explanation. Such is understood to be the result of the explana-
tions between the American Envoy and the British Secretary.

Debate in the House of Commons.

to
Ins

a
a
las
jlie
liid
ies

impulse; and to have exposed Lord Palmerston,
Mr. Stevenson would have required instructions
from his own Government. Could the American
Government act in such a case? Men, as govern-
ments, that are led, can venture to do nothing.
He who prepares events, ventures, and acts —
not he who is taken aback by events, and is unpre-
pared for results which another has designed and
executed. Besides, the American Government, is it
not now brought into a position of hostility to Great
Britain ? Unable to conceive the design of restoring
harmony by conquering that hostility in its source,
it remains for it only to become the enemy of England,
and to look on any thing that will injure England as
a benefit to itself. It sees, then, that this British
Minister has by pusillanimity, as it will suppose,
in one case, and by falsehood in another, given to
itself a position of strength as against Great Britain,
not seeing that he is the cause of the danger to both.
It will consider that the same imbecility and false-
hood must rouse up foes to England throughout the
world. Before minds thus doubting and thus inimi-
cal, the long Disputed Territory will arise ; and in
more distant perspective, those magnificent posses-
sions of England in North America, containing,
within themselves, elements of manufacturing and
maritime greatness, inferior to those only which
have given empire to these Isles : — which once
possessed, the United States is relieved from all
control on the continent of America, and a trans-
fer is effected, from the Old World to the New,

Debate in the House of Commons.

of greatness, power, and dominion. All these
under-currents of thoughts are carrying the Ame-
rican Government day by day into a position more
and more favourable to the Ministers of this coun-
try, whether as to awakening ambitious thoughts,
whether as to confirming hostile acts, whether as to
the inspiring of sentiments inimical to Great Britain,
and as rendering difficult, if not impossible, to
retract from the steps into which they have been
led. Therein is triumph, for the designs of vvliich
he is the instrument, and security to himself. In
other crimes, danger is increased by its perpetra-
tion ; but in treason, it is the very accomplishment
that gives security. He is secure from exposure by
any state that he makes the foe of Britain ; he is
secure from all inquiry in his own country, when
the hatred with which he has inspired any Foreign
State will have roused up counter hostility and
passion in his own : Lord Palmerston can be ex-
posed by none, except by the friend of England,
and having wielded the power of England during
eleven years, he has left no chance throughout the
wide world of such exposure.

And that which is the chief danger is this, that
state after state, by England's act, is linked together
in mutual sympathies ; they join in a tacit recogni-
tion that the day of reckoning for England with all
is at hand — thence the growth of reciprocal confi-
dence — hence the habit of common concealment
from England, alike of their thoughts and of their
intentions. But what needs the tracing of conse-

Debate in the House of Commons.

quences— if it be that the Minister of England is
the instrument of Russia ? Can there be any diffi-
culty, if this is so, in confusing every state in the
world, and in making every state England's foe ?
That collusion is the sole question to be examined ;
that collusion is to be established, not by glancing
at events passing, but by examining such as are
concluded ; proved in one instance, it is proved in
all.

PART IV.

PARALLEL CASE OF BOUNDARY DHTERi: NCES.

" Such a man is a public enemy, who saps the foundations of
the peace and common safety of nations." — \'attel.

But (loos this transaction stand alone? No ; the
greatest of international differences, one of disputed
Territory, pends between the United States and
England — diderence such as cannot long remain
between nations*, without rousing up every latent
element of ill-will, sowing the seed of war, and
destroying the value of peace; such diflferences are
dangerous alike in their origin as in their effects ;
because tliev can exist only bv some criminal design,
or by some inability to manage public affairs. If
there is the suspicion of intentional incitement of
America in regard to the atiair of Mr. M^Leod,
we must turn to examine this long-agitated ques-
tion, respecting which voluminous documents are
in our hands. With two such transactions before
us, we surely may be able to arrive at a just
estimate of the character, and a clear percep-

* " The tranquillity of people, the safety of states, the hap-
piness of the human race, do not allow that the frontiers * * * of
nations should remain uncertain, suhject to dispute, and over
ready to occasion l)loody wars." — A^attel, Law of Nutionst.

Parallel Case of Boundary Differences. 73

tion of the intentions of the single individual who
acts for England.

The differences between the United States and
Great Britain have been adjusted by a double inter-
national transaction — the one^ a solemn Convention
between Enyland and the United States ; the other, a
sovereign A)rard rendered according to the terms of
that Convention. How then can there he here a
question open between the two countries?

In January 1831, ^as that Award rendered.
The Minister of the British Crown refused that
A ward to the House of Commons ; told that House,
after the Award had been rendered, and accepted
by the Crown of England, that the question was one
regarding which " negociations were pending,^' and
called upon it to place reliance in the declaration

which he made in his ministerial capacity, that

the motion for its production could not be safely
" assented to*." This minister then avoided taking
any steps to obtain the recognition of the Award
by the United States, and did take steps multi-
farious and complicated, to obtain its rejection.
This transaction T have already exposed in detailf ;

((

* Parliamentary Debates, IMardi 14, 1831.

t House of Commons^ August 2^, 1839. — " Mr. D'Israeli:
I heg to present a petition, Sir, from certain merchants and ship-
owners of the city of London. It is most respectably signed ; and,
among others, by gentlemen who are now, and several who have
been. Members of this House ; by the Committee of the North
American Association ; by the President of the South American
Association ; and other firms of great respectability, stating—

74 VimdUi (^asv of BoHndanj Differvncts,

and as that exposition is witliin the reach of who-
evci desires to examine it, \ shall here tontent
myself with asserthig that during- x years of
negociation, every line, every act, evev/ statement,
every omission, coincides systematically to reach
the same end, that of ahrogating the Award — re-
opening the question — inviting the American Go-
vernment to advance pretences, and the Border
po[)ulation to commit aggression*. In that case, as
in the present, every word uttered by the Foreign
Secretary was false ; and the House of Commons on
that, as on this occasion, submitted alike to his
falsehoods and to his denial of information.

Just a month before the burning of the Caroline,
Lord Palmerston had completely shaken off the
Award of the King of Holland. On the 19th No-

* That tho Minister for Foreign Affairs, to whoso intelligence and
integrity are entrusted the honour and interests of this country,
has been publicly charged with criminality of the gravest charac-
ter, in an " Exposition of the Boundary Differences
BETWEEN Great Britain and the United States. By David
Urquiiart, Esq." The petitioners, therefore, pray this Ho-
nourable House to institute an inquiry into these allegations,
demanded alike by the honour of the Minister, and the interests
of the nation.' " — Mirror of Parliament.

* Sir John Harvey declares to Lord Glenelg that the vexatious
proceedings of the State of Maine, " if they did not actually arise,
received an increased degree of confidence from some (doubtless
wilful) misconception on the part of the people of Maine, of a
declaration imputed to Lord Palmerston in his place in the House
of Commons." Could the Governor of a Province, speaking of
a minister, express himself more significantly ?

J^arallel Case of lioundanj Differences. 75

ho-

(Mlt

of
;nt,
ich
re-
ro-
ller
as

vember, 1837, ho writes thus : — ** The two govern-
" ments are AS FREE, in respect to this settlement,
" as they were before this reference to the King of
** the Netherlands had been made !"

** Free /" Weigh the word, and consider who
the man is who uses it.

But supposing that the Award of the King of
Holland could be set aside, you had the Convention
of 1827 to regulate the proceedings, and that Con-
vention was again but explanatory of the Treaty of
Ghent of 1814, which stipulates the appointment of
a judge and arbiter.

Having broken up the award, the minister pro-
ceeds to new negociations without any Convention
to bind the parties to abide by a new award, or to
adjust, by some common agreement, the terms of
the settlement!* What would be said of such a
proceeding if no bonds or treaties were in existence ?
If the Award had not been set aside with the view
of preventing a settlement, he would have now pro-
posed a readjudication under the Convention, which
they pretended had not been adhered to with suf-
ficient strictness in the decision of the King of Hol-
land*. The Convention is never heard of again — it

* Tlie ground assumed for setting aside the award of the
King of Holland is, that, instead of selecting one of the two
lines, the arbiter had laid down another lino. The Conven-
tion of September 29, 1837, declares, in the first article,
" Tliat the points of difference which have arisen in the settle-

70 Parallel Case of Boundary Differences.

passes away as the Award has passed. Can ther^,
then, be a doubt as to the motive ? Then the two

ment of the Boiindary betv eon British and American dominions,
shall be referred to some friendly Sovereign or State, who shall be
invited to investigate and make a decision upon such points of
difference."

Agnin, in the Treaty of Ghent, of 1814, the words are as clear
as words can be, and the intention as evident, that whatever
differences should arise, were to be irrevocably settled by the
decision of the arbiter. It says, in article 4, which adjints the
mode of proceeding in regard to the Boundary specified in article
5 — " In the event of the Commissioners differing upon all or
any of the matters so referred to them * * * His Britannic
Majesty and the Government of the United States agree to refer
the Report or Reports of the Commissioners to the Sovereign of some
friendly State, who shall be requested to decide upon the differ-
ences which shall be stated in the said Report or Reports. * * *
And His Britannic Majesty and the Government of the United
States engage to consider the decision of such friendly Sovereign
or State as final and conclusive on all the matters so referred."

The Convention of the 27th September, 1829, under which
the King of Holland was chosen for the arbiter, stipulates, in
Article 7, " That the decision of the arbiter, when given, shall
be taken as final and conclusive, and shall be carried without
reserve into immediate effect."

It is further assumed that the King of Holland had not given
a decision, but only pronounced an opinion. Why then did the
English Government address to the King of Holland its acceptance
of the award ? The statement is too nonsensical to merit a
reply. The words used are " nous sommes d'avis" which is the
form of such arbitration — which is the term used in the arbitra-
tion of the Emperor of Russia on the question of slaves referred
to him, equally under the Treaty of Ghent, and whicli imposed

Parallel Case of Boundary Differences. 77

Governments enter into that exchange of words,
which was characterised by Sir Robert Peel, in the
House of Commons, as " a series of propositions
" reciprocally made and rejected," but which was a
series of propositions, so made to the United States
by the British Minister, as to invite rejection, and
invited by him from the United States, to be re-
jected*.

The Foreign Minister, in his urgency to settle this
matter, sends out the British commission without
settling any mode of decision, or even waiting for that
of America. But the American commission not having
proceeded to the same task conjointly with that of
Britain, this haste could noways advance the settle-
ment, even if, under such circumstances, a settlement
was possible. The commissioners conclude their
task, they come home, they make a report; the
Foreign Secretary, who communicates no documents
while *' negociations are pending," publishes the
report ! The cases on both sides, had they not
to be simultaneously presented ? In the former
adjustment, the most special care had been taken

upon England a heavy pecuniary loss, without our statesmen
having then discovered that " avis " was an opinion, and not a
decision. Tlie words of the Russian award are less formal
than those of the King of Holland. The King of Holland
says, " notts sommes d'avis" rendering the award in his own
person. The Russian Government rendering the award in the
name of the Minister, thus, " I'Empereur est d'avis."
* See Appendix, No. VII.

78 Parallel Case of Boundary Differences.

to settle by an international act the mode of proce-
dure, so that the reports should be simultaneously
presented. But here British Commissioners are
sent out alone, and their report is published to the
world, before any steps are taken to adjust the
matter with America; before it was settled under
what authority it was to be adjusted, and without
even there being any commission appointed by Ame-
rica. What could avail all the Reports that the in-
genuity of men could furnish, unless presented to the
arbiter who had to decide ? And this report is made
public by the very minister who had refused to parlia-
ment the Award of the King of Holland ! Perhaps
it was that this Report should produce a fa\ourable
impression upon the feelings of America — that it
could facilitate the negociation, by the concurrence
which it held out, and the favourableness of the
conclusions to America at which it had arrived.
Let us open the Report, and see what it proposes :
The Report claims the whole matter in dispute :
nay — it goes further — it claims a portion of the
territory of the United Htates ! Supposing this a
&o««//(/e transaction, the publication of the Report
must have enlightened the American Government
with respect to the arguments which England would
use ; and exasperated the American people with
respect to the pretensions which she advanced, and
tended necessarily to unite the whole of the American
people in a common cause with the state of Maine.
Contrast, then, these tvvo acts — a solemn Award

Parallel Case of Buunclari/ Differences. 79

rendered by a Sovereign Arbiter refused to Parlia-
ment, and a portion of a case that had to be
submitted to arbitration — made public. Observe
the false declaration to justify the withholding of
the Award, namely, that negociations were pending
where no negociations were pending. There could be
here no matter of negociation ; the Treaty of Ghent
expressly put aside all negociations upon such a
subject, except with reference to the selection of
the Arbiter, and the mode of presenting the case to
that Arbiter. Observe the falsehood of the pre-
text for publishing the Report of the Commis-
sioners — that of hastening the settlement of the
<piestion, when the commission itself was but a
means of postponing a re[)ly to the American
Government, and did suspend the negociation
during a period of two years.

The effect of this publication in England is
equally conducive to the samepi^' ose. Men would
account for the rejection of the .?w ird of the King
of Holland by Lord Palr-.erston*s desire i.o gain for
England better terni^ A^ th)Dg then in the natural
objects of the transaction can explain the publi-
cation ; but that pu M; cation leu Js so directly to the
excitement of violence and animosity in th'3 ^ Suited
States — leads so directly to the perversion of the
integrity and knowledge of the J3ritish i)ublic, as
evidently to have been the calculated objects which
the British Minister had in view.

But the pretence of sending cut the commission
without the American commission was to hasten

80 Parallel Case of Boundary Differences.

the adjustment*. A similar pretext must also have
existed for publishing the report. How is it then
that the report, if publicity for it was required, and
if haste was so urgent, was not published tit the
time the commission came home ? Weeks — months
— more than half-a-year elapses before it is pub-
lished. And what is the period selected for that
purpose ? July 1840, when a treaty was signed
which made France the foe of England — when a
treaty was signed that renders Russia mistress in
Europe and in Asia ; then too was this report pub-
lished, equally to render the United States the foe oi
England ; and thus, at once in Asia, in Europe, and
in America, call forth that hostility against England
which, in each and in all, should enable the policy
of the Brunow Treaty to triumph.

Thus, after an award had been rendered, the ques-
tion has been re-opened — every step taken has
led to increase of difficulties — no steps have been
taken that can be accounted for by desire to bring
the matter to a conclusion — the question is, at
this hour, unsettled, and each hour increases the im-
probability of a settlement. In the Appendix will
be found a concise statement of the propositions
and the counter-propositions since the parties have
affected to have got rid of the award. There also
will be found the discussions upon the subject

* The commissioners performed their task with the greatest
haste, being required to finish their labours within the season,
although they only received their instructions in the month of
t^uly.

Parallel Case of Boundary Differences, 81

in the House of Commons, in which the reader
will find, by comparing Lord Palmerston's state-
ments with himself and with the details given, that
he has falsely represented the facts.

The reader will make the application of these
facts to the case of Mr. M'^Leod ; he will carry
back what he has learned from this case as light by
which to read the intentions of the Minister who
has re-opened the Boundary Differences between
Great Britain and tiie United States.

PART V.

INTERESTS COMPROMISED ABROAD, CONSTITUTION
SUBVERTED AT HOME, BY THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS.

" Other people, Athenians, deliberate, while affairs are still
pending ; you deliberate, when the event has made counsel of no
avail." Demostuenes.

In face of circumstances the most suspicious, and
surrounded by events the most aiarniing, a nation
is tranquil and secure, and no thought of causes,
and no apprehension of consequences, disturb the
frivolity of their pursuits, or interrupt the agitation
of their factions.

Men calling themselves instructed, living in an
age which they term < nlightened, travel about from
subject to subject, and from interest to interest,
foiming opinions without hoed or care, and passing
from opinion to opinion, as from subject to subject,
as if believvisg thdir minds to be of no value — their
thoughts of no import^ as if their acts entailed no
consequences, their freedom conferred no rights,
and that nothing they could do or say affected their
existence, or that of others ? After an event
has occurred, the whole nation is full of petty
details respecting it, but never for an instant

ConstilutioH subverted at Home.

ION
OF

bends its mind to examine the causes whicli
have led to that incident — the consequences that
may flow from it — the purpose for which it is
designed. Events come upon them like hail or rain,
like sunshine or storm, as things that they may
judge good or bad, pleasing to look at or painful
to endure ; but into the causes of which they can-
not inquire, and over the event of which they have
no control.

How is it that it is necessary to seize and to
grapple with each man before you can get him
to look at any fact in itself, or to conceive that
any two acts of his country can have a common
origin ? Although he knows that one man directs
the policy of England, no Englishman conceives
that there can be any connection between a mea-
sure of England in China, and one in Guatemala ;
or that there is no understanding the one unless
the other is also understood ; that there can be any
connection between submission to an illegal block-
ade on the coast of South America, and the esta-
blishment of one on the coast of the Morea, and
that both must be designed for the same purpose ?

Notwithstanding this repugnance to examine, is
tliere any backwardness to form, any slowness to
express opinion ? Notwithstanding this multiplicity
and pertinacity of opinion, I never found a man
who did not admit his inability to solve each
difficulty that was successively presented to him —
who shrunk from admitting that he did not compre-
hend tlie policy of his country. Notwithstanding

Interests compromised Abroad,

this consciousness of ignorance, I found none who
conceived either ignorance to be criminal, or the
expression of opinions upon subjects he was
conscious he did not comprehend, to be dangerous
or base. Yet it appears to me that no suspicion of
guilt or perception of danger ought to be requisite
to arouse a reasoning being to reflection, and to
impose upon a citizen the duty of investigation. It
appears to me that it is enough that there should be
in the public transactions of the state, that which is
enigmatic — that there should be in the words of a
Minister that which is contradictory — that there
should be in public opinion that which is at variance,
for any rational being to conclude — that the intention
of the actor was the thing to be sought — that it was
the knowledge of that intention, which alone could
solve such difficulties as were to be found — that it was
only in as far as the intention was criminal that dif-
ficulties could exist, or that false semblances could
be presented. Diplomatic confusion must, there-
fore, spring from crime, and danger must arise, both
from the complications that have been produced,
and by the crime from which they sprung ; so that,
at once, the criminality of the intention becomes the
solution of the difficulty, and knowledge of the
crime the means of averting the danger. Yet, when
this solution is presented to the men of whom this
nation is actually composed, they recoil as if it were
criminal to denounce crime — as if it were not cri-
minal to disregard such a denunciation !

The cause is, that they are not aware that there is

(Mnsiilution subverted at Home.

difficulty to solve, or that there is danger in presence.
Their own thoughts crumbled down, how can they
see system ? — and knowing nothing of those things
that consLitute a nation, how can they understand
danger ?

. It is not by exposing the mere symptoms of
mental malady that that disease can be rendered
perceptible. Disease of the mind ceases when it is
seen, and nations would not perish if such disease
could be exposed by the speech or the pen. The
time will come, when a few words will suffice to
establish the fact of the existence of that same
malady in us, by which other states have perished ;
but it is posterity that will listen to the exposition.
That exposition will be easy when the history of this
people will have been summed up ; when it will be —
the British Empire has perished, because the
people was inconstant, factious, corrupt ; when
long mismanagement brought about intentional
betrayal, and Russia enacted on a grander scale the
tragedy of Poland, with this difference, that she
had in the first drama many accomplices, and one
victim ; and in the latter, the actors were many,
and were reciprocally victims and accomplices."
Still there may be things which, when pointed
out to men, may give rise to reflection.

Englishmen believe that they combine in their
form of government, the special excellencies of those
various forms that have given splendour, power,
beauty, and permanence, to the mightiest empires
and republics of ancient days. They ])elieve that in

((

Inlerc'Sts compromised Abroad,

England thero is nionarcliical power, limited by
representative wisdom; they believe, tlierelore, in the
existence at once of power and of wisdom, and are
satisfied that they possess the means by which
to defend the rights of the state and to maintain the
liberty of the citizens. And with tli: Taith rooted in
their minds, they repudiate the idea of crirao in the
highest olfice of the states above all, international
crimp — that its to say — tlie betrayal of the whole
state by the very authority constituted for the
maintenance of its rights, because such can be
conceived to exist only in a constitution the most
debased, and amongst men the most depraved.

From this difficulty, common to my fellow-
countrymen, I have been relieved by having come
to the knowledge of the existence of this betrayal,
without having lost myself in speculating on its
possibility. The idea was not one placed before
iiie to induce me to examine facts, but it came to me
as the solution of difficidties presented by facts in
my possession. With this knowledge did I com-
mence the investigation of the practice of other
governments, in ancient and modern times ; and
the comparison of these with England would now
lead me to look for treason, as a necessary con-
sequence of the changes effected in the British
Constitution and in the mind of the British Nation,
if the knowledge of its existence had not been that
which had led me to this inquiry, or which had
given me the means of prosecuting H. I now per-
ceive, in the habits of my country, characters which

ConslifutioH snhrerfcd at Home.

laintain the

coincide with those which are to be detected in
every state that has perished. These are, of course,
not connected with any form of government, for
if so, the opportunity of examining them would
never present itself. Under every form of govern-
ment nations have been great, as under every form
nations have decayed. What we have to look for
is, then, the disease which destroys every constitu-
tion. That disease is disagreement between citizens ;
but each has wandered before a multitude operates,
and that because none see their way. Out of disa-
greement arises quarr that is faction — dangerous
in proportion as the » pportunities for increasing
confusion areallbrded l)y speech, by writing, and by
making laws. The multiplicity of laws will re-act
upon the disease, to aggravate it — by their very
weight, they destroy the power of the Government,
while the intensity of faction places the nation with-
out the power of acting. Then do men forget those
things, and lose those thoughts, that have given
them the name of a piece of earth for a common
appellation, and which have constituted them one
people ; namely, their rights as a people, the defence
of those rights against all other people ; namely,
the mutual aflections that spring from these com-
mon necessities, and the duties that spring from
these mutual affections. Unity is the effect and
evidence of the health of a constitution, since it is
found only when the thoughts of the men are
simple ; and unity is found where each man sees as

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^<b

Interests compromised Abroad,

his neighbour sees, that is, where the common
faculty of vision is unimpaired. Where the
seeds of disease can spring, health has been im-
paired, and the disease having reached maturity,
life becomes extinct. In England, this malady
has long afflicted the state, and has grown
rapidly. The amount of health which remains to
be destroyed within is fearfully reduced*, and the
dangers that oppress the weakened body from
without, have more than in equal proportion in-
creased in magnitude and number. The body, it
is true, is not weak in arms, in riches, in men, in
dominion ; it is great in all those things that are the
physical characters of power; butthese, when misused,
it is dangerous and not profitable to possess.

The House of Commons, in Great Britain, has
increased in power, and, gradually pressing on the
prerogatives of the highest branch of the constitu-
tion, has ceased to be that which it originally was,
the controller of the expenditure ; it has now become
a governing body. It has destroyed the functions of
the Crown in the appointment of its Minister. It has
also set itself up in opposition to the Law. This
body has thus become the sovereign of the state, and
has destroyed the authority of the Crown, in regard

« ((

The rapid fall of England is a very remarkable and
melancholy phenomenon; it is a deathlike sickness, without
remedy." — Neibuhr.

" When schism and faction abound in a state, it is near its
ruin, and ought to be invaded." — Institutes of Timour.

Constitution suhierled at Home.

SV)

im-

lo those matters— FOREIGN relations, that have
been more specially entrusted to its care.

Regarding these matters, the Parliament is kept
an ignorance while " negociations are pending." If
negociations are pending, it is that there are
complications of which the issue is doubtful ; that
differences do exist which are dangerous, and
it is sufficient for a British Parliament to be told
that doubt and danger exist, for it to abstain from
all inquiry \ If it assumed to know nothing upon
the subject, the nation would not trust to its
■care, nor confide in its responsibility ; a monarch
might think of the safety of his people, and of
the security of his crown; Foreign states, allied
in interests to Britain, endangered or assailed by the
Minister, might trust in some happy revulsion of
the public mind as a means of safety and redress.
But by its assumption of knowledge, all energy
sinks, and even such chances as might be afforded
to a state without a government, are lost for us ;
false care — hollow responsibility, render all within
heedless, and all without hostile. The doctrine that
information is to be withheld while negociations are
pending, invites from the Minister that mismanage-
ment which places each member of that assembly in
the obliged position of an accomplice. " While
negociations are pending, we may pass votes of
censure on the body of the Ministry, but we will
believe nothing, and ask nothing, respecting the
acts of the Foreign Secretary ; we will know
nothing concerning such matters as that Minister

•ii

Interests compromised Abroad,

" declares to be unsettled :" — Is not this to hold out
a bonus for incapacity ? Mismanagement has taken
place ; — complicate affairs, and you escape detection.
The mismanagement is by design; — what matters
the intention, when the very fact of mismanagement
secures immunity !

But while external interests are those alone which
are important, they are also those upon which alone
the executive has any action. All internal matters
are settled by a vote in Parliament, and it matters
not who is your minister ; indeed it little matters
that there should be a government, since it is the
majority of the Parliament that decides. In every
internal transaction every information is granted,
w^hen demanded, and a v^^hole government is held
responsible. In regard to external affairs, so im-
portant, regarding which information is excluded, all
is left to one man. These are the matters which are
difficult, these are the matters in which a premium
may be offered for corruption, in w^hich incapacity
gives to a minister for defence, every foreign
influence hostile to the commonwealth, and in which
even a bribe can be offered with safety and accepted
w^ith impunity. On these matters a House of Com-
mons is satisfied to wait until matters are no longer
pending — that is to say — until the evil has been
accomplished, and defers its Tcnowledge until the
period when no knowledge can be of any avail.

Knowledge after events would be useless if
obtained, but the obtaining of it is then impracti-
cable ; and to assert that it is desired, or that it is

(Jonstilntion subverted at Home.

obtained, after events are no longer pending, is to
lie to the nation which has already been betrayed.
If the Parliament honestly avowed that it knew
nothing upon such subjects, men might think, and
hope, and inquire, and their spirits would be alert
and their senses awake. But as it is, the Parliament
extinguishes our nation's common sense, while
supposed to be the representative of its opinions ;
thus it is that no single individual throughout that
whole people, can be brought to make the effort
even of thought, until, by heavy blows, dealt upon
him, or a long and studious process applied to him,
all his convictions have been shaken.

For any Minister of England not to seek publicity,
is to prove himself guilty of all that can render a
Minister dangerous ; that is a total miscomprehen-
sion of the power and the interests of the country
whose destiny he wijlds. Thei^e is no object which
Britain has to desire, to the furtherance of which
publicity is not a means. What then is the Minister
that seeks to conceal ? — What then is the Parliament
to which that concealment can be offered as a r^ ison
for withholding from it knowledge of acts by which
it is bound, and for which it is responsible ?

The House of Commons, by appointing the Minis-
ter, or at least the faction from which that Minister
is chosen, becomes, in fact, the Sovereign of the
State, and that sovereign body suffers that the know-
ledge of all public transactions should be withheld
from itself ! Figure to yourself the Minister of the
Emperor of Austria, or of the King of Prussia,

Interests compromised Alt road,

withholding from his sovereign knowledge of the
international transactions in which the Government
was involved ! Would you not say, even if this has
not arisen from some perfidious design, that the
state was in peril, and that it would be well for
it if it had no government? What has been the
danger of states from imbecile monarchs, but this —
that the Minister became irresponsible* ?

The governing body of England is not en-
trusted by the Minister of England with his
intentions ; indeed, the servant and the mas-
ter concur in thinking that it would not be safe
for the master to know what the servant was
about to do until it was done; that is to say, the
servant and the master have changed places. The
Parliament has taken the power from the Crown,
the Minister from the Parliament. Yet by an appear-
ance of attending to matters over which they do
in reality exercise no control, they relieve the
nation from care, and therefore from all interest in
their affairs ; while the whole power and influence
of England, united in its Parliament^, shares against
the nation the responsibility of mismanagement,
leading in its ultimate consequences to the gravest
of dangers that can afliict from within or menace
from without — betrayal and war.

* " When a Sovereign does evil, the State may be preserved
by the wisdom of a Minister ; but when a Minister does evil,
what protection remains ?" — Institutes of Timour.

+ " The House of Commons is the curse of England." —
Expression of Genx^ in 1815.

Constiluiion suhverhd at Home.

' the
naent
\ has

the
I for

the

<(.

" But of all things, that which is most alarming
to us is this — that our minds are quite alienated
from public affairs ; that our attention is caught
for a moment when some new event lias hap-
pened, then each man departs, and not only is
he not moved by what he has heard, but soon
forgets it*." How singular it is to observe the
regularity of the process by which nations fall. Let
any one read this passage, and put himself in the
place of Philip, calculating upon the means of
success afforded him by such mental characters in
that Grecian state, which considered itself in mind
and fortune elevated so far above the Macedonian
" barbarian." The transition will then be easy to
the reflexions of a Russian minister in looking on
Europe.

This body, again so powerful and despotic without,
is so balanced by faction within, that the very Minis-
ter may almost, by his single vote, turn the scale
between contending factions. It is not impunity
that he has to seek for mismanagement ; it is through
mismanagement that he obtains power, — because the
responsibility of that mismanagement rests on the
shoulders of each individual of the assembly by
which it is not detected, and whose duty it is to
arrest malversation, to detect fraud, and to punish
crime. Thus, himself above party associations or
influences, he can use and command these, so as to
control the government through the Parliament.

* Demosthenes.

I /lie rest & compromiaed Ah road ^

The Parliament he controls through the acts to
which he can commit it, as minister ; while througli
the Parliament thus reduced to subserviency, he can
determine the existence of the ministry.

It was the bitterest of reproaches addressed by
Demosthenes to the Athenians, that they, differing
from all people, deliberated when events had made
deliberation of no avail. Might not there still be
some hope for a people to whom, such a reproach
could be addressed, and by whom it could be felt?
But what hope is there for a people to whom such
words convey no reproach, and ^vho conceive it a
part of an admirable and scientific system of
government, that while affairs are pending, they
shall not only not deliberate, but not know ?

The monarch irresponsible for results, is he not
powerless ? The Minister uncontrolled, is he not
supreme ? The Parliament ignorant, does it not
become his instrument against the sovereign and
the state; and the nation careless, h it not
enslaved ? — enslaved not to a domestic tyrant, but to
a foreign foe ! The Minister is relieved from respon-
sibility by that of the Parliament, the Parlia-
ment is relieved from responsibility by believing
that the Government acts, the nation from care,
by believing that the Parliament understands, so
that there is no authority, responsibility, or know-
ledge ; so that the forms designed to support, and
to shield the state, become the chains by which
it is bound, and the tomb in which it is buried.

Thus are extinguished at once power and fre6-

Constitution subverted at Home.

it a

dom. By repeating the word " constitutional
" monarchy," etich man in this island practises
a double deception upon himself. By this decep-
tion it is that power is extinguished, and that
freedom is destroyed ; by this it is that danger is
incurred, not that which an external enemy is
suffered to bring upon us by his own strength, but
the danger of an enemy becoming possessed of the
authority of the highest functions of this empire, to
lead its steps into difficulty, and to cover its eyes
with darkness.

But you will say, supposing this to be true, we
are not in a worse state than France for instance, or
than the United States ; and surely we cannot be in
a worse state than the despotic governments of
Prussia, Austria, and Russia.

But your state has to be examined in itself.
You would not be content with it if it were bad,
because another country was worse ; nor would
the danger, if it w^as proved to exist, be averted,
because you are not alone endangered. That decay
which I foresee for my own country, I foresee eq^ tally
for the rest of Europe, with one exception; and
were the alternatives placed before me, I should
prefer to see England perish rather than live on the
condition of imitating that state which, by its mental
superiority to them, has conceived the design of
murder against its compeers. But among coeval
states, equally afflicted with the disease of the age —
equally led victims to the altar of Muscovite ambi-

Interests compromised Ahroact,

tion, there is not one so far gone as England — not
one so destitute of administrati\'e protection. No
state is so absorbed by faction, and in no other, can,
it be said that there is no man, except the individual
into whose hands accident confides the reins of
power, wliose duty it is to examine and to under-
stand its public interests.

In the United States, a people composed of
Englishmen, carrying there tlie thoughts and man-
ners of the constitution, and having adopted, to the
very letter, the laws and forms of England, with the
difference of placing a President in lieu of a Governor,
changes have been effected in regard to the conduct
of external, that is national affairs, of the most im-
portant and impressive character.

A Supreme Court is there established to judge
international questions. On the violation of the rights
of an American citizen, by a foreign state, he is not at
the caprice of a foreign minister, or dependent on the
waywardness ofa faction — nor is public right exposed
in his person to such chances — nor is the Government
or even faction, because they have neglected their
duty, exposed to finding themselves the enemy of
the commonwealth. The citizen so injuredy appeals
to a court of law, independent of tlie Government,,
above the executive, and the sole interpreter of the
constitution.

A Senate is there also established, having positive-
control over all foreign transactions — having a
voice even in the selection of the individuals who

Const ihit ion suhvertvd at Home.

are to fill diplomatic offices, and requiring the
concurrence of tvvo-tliirds of its members in all
such arrangements.

In the congress of the United States, there are
Committees of forei<jn relations which examine inter-
national transactions.

I pray the reader to compare these wise provisions
with the practice of his own country, and reflect.

But how came the American people to have
thoughts so distinct from that of Britain ? We find
not in the history of time, that nations revert to
truth and to simplicity, no more than the stream,
when it becomes clouded, can regain the purity of
its early spring. The English race transported to
America, how can it have regained that which it had
lost within the limits of Albion ? May it not be
that since their separation, England has changed
from what she was, while her trans-atlantic progeny
has remained in this respect nearer to the original
type ? This is the fact. When the emigration to
the United Colonies took place, there was in Eng-
land the tradition, if not the practice, of an assem-
bly of elders assisting the monarch by their counsels.
In the estimate of that period, foreign transactions
stood as the first and highest interest of the State —
they were subjects deeply interesting to every citizen.

If so, it was natural that the Americans, in con-
structing a new government, should attend to those
matters which all felt to be important, should be-
think themselves of such a body as they left behind
them in England ; namely, a Privy Council. They

Interesls compromised Abroad,

(lid so. They did not establish a similar body, but
they considered the i'unetions it had to perform,
and they distributed these with its powers, partly
to a Supreme Court, and partly to the Senate.

The Privy Council, which is now entirely bereft
of deliberative functions and controlling power,
which has now no authority, except in its judicial
character, formerly exercised a decisive influence
on all matters of state, and without its advice no
aflfair of moment could be transacted. It was
formed from among the men by experience, reputation,
or influence, supposed likely to be able to assist the
monarch by their wisdom, and to give weight to the
acts of the Government by their concurrence. They
were chosen by the monarch ; he selected them, in
order that they might give him strength ; they were
responsible to him for the advice which they gave,
while responsible to the nation for the acts which
he performed. Giving to the sovereign protection
against misrepresentation — giving to him control
over faction — giving to the country a safeguard
against the caprice of a sovereign, the dishonesty of
a minister, the heedlessness of a cabinet.

The sovereign v/sls not bound to accept its coun-
sel, nor to abide by its decision ; but he had the
advantage of hearing what it had to say. It stood
distinct from parliameni — it stood distinct from the
ministry — it had no authority, no legislative powers,
no interest, therefore, as a body. It did represent
the feelings of the nation and the knowledge of the
times. It exercised a constant and powerful control

(Jonstitution subverted at Home.

over the administration of the state, it acted as a regu-
lator, not a punisher, having the right of foreknow-
ledge of the intentions, and of examination before-
hand of the grounds of all ministerial decisions.
But this body was inconvenient to the Sovereign
and to Ministers ; as the breach of faction widened,
and as the nation came to be rallied more and more
exclusively under hostile banners, its power decayed,
and it remained without support.

The Privy Council struggled with the Monarch
and struggled with the Nation, through the various
storms of our convulsed Constitution*, down to the
period of the settlement of the succession of the
Crown upon the present Family.

We have, at that period, a remarkable instance of
the progress of administrative decay, and also of
the lingering estimate of the utility of this body
as its functions died away.

In settling anew the succession of the Crown, the
Parliament reconsidered the state of the Common-
wealth, bethought itself of the ancient constitution of
this realm, and introduced a clause for the purpose
of restoring the privileges as well as the responsihility
of the Privy Council, enacting that all such matters
as, according to the laws or the customs of the

* Sir W. Temple laboured to restore the authority of the
privy council, but he laboured in vain, and equally in vain did
lie point out the dangers that would follow from the misuse or
the abuse of that body.

In the last reign there was a private secretary.

In the present, even this security has been swept away.

100

Interests compromised Abroad,

realm, were cognisible in that council, should here-
after he there transacted ; and while it again placed
within the control of the Privy Council all matters
connected with foreign alliances, it enacted that all
the members of the Privy Council advisirg or con-
curring in the resolutions adopted, should append
thereto their signatures.

This was enacted in the reign of William; but in
the succeeding reign, another layer of mist having
been spread over the eyes of this people, this statute
was rescinded. Simultaneously with that increase
of faction which gave the House of Commons the
faculty of imposing a body of ministers on the
sovereign, came the loss to him of that counsel,
which afTorded him the means of controlling a
ministry of his own choice. Thus the body of
ministers, men accidentally appointed by a majority,
remained uncontrolled by any man, or body of
men whatever, who had the privilege or right of
fore-knowledge of the grounds on which they pro-
posed to act — uncontrolled by any man or body of
men having the faculty to interpose to arrest an
unsound decision.

It appears to me that the absence of such a
body must alarm for the permanency of the state ;
how much more its destruction !

There is no political or historical inquirer that in
any way has weighed this change. There appears
to be no man conscious of it. The silent and
unobserved destruction of this body has taken
place, while the people of this land believe that

Constitution subverted at Home.

101

their state, and therefore their minds, have been
improving.

Thus the difference which we find between the
practice of the constitution of the United States and
that of England, amounts, in reality, to a dif-
ference between England in the eighteenth and the
nineteenth centuries.

From the Hudson let us carry our eyes to the
Bosphorus ; from American republicanism let us
turn to Mussulman despotism, and see what means
are possessed in the systems of Asia for controlling
the conduct of their public affairs. The successor of
the Caliphs is, no less than the President of the United
States, subject to the control of a judicial authority,
placed above the executive, and the guardians of
the constitution. No more has the sovereign of
Turkey, than the President of America, thfe right
of peace and war*. And the representative of the
chief of the law accompanies, when he crosses the
frontier, the general representing the sovereign of the
state, whose acts are invalid without his legal sanc-
tion. A court of law in Turkey, as in the United
States, is open to the appeal of any Turkish citizen,
injured by a foreign state. Such is public right
wherever Islamism prevails.

Turn now to any of the military governments of

* By the act settling the succession of the present family, the
right of peace and war, in regard to interests involved in their
continental Dominions, was withdrawn from the Sovereigns of
England.

102

Interests compromised Abroad ,

Europe. There is a Sovereign despotic, that is —
Master ; consequent!)' that Sovereign is respon-
sible to his people for the results of his use of
power. The Monarch in external questions, can
have no motive, save that of maintaining his King-
dom's honour, power, and rights, and his Ministers
are his servants.

Here no majority fixes ministerial position, or
screens ministerial responsibility ; there is no
balancing between majorities in an assemblage of
disputing Delegates ; no playing off of a Parliament
against a Monarch, or a Monarch against a Parlia-
ment. There is power in the Monarch, because
there is responsibility in the Minister ; and there is
too responsibility in the Monarch, because disasters
are not accounted for by thousands of accomplices
and dupes.

" At all events," it will be said, " France is no
" better off" than we are."

Those matters, which you neglect calling
them foreign^ France calls national, and places
above internal disputes. In France this sense of
national existence is kept alive by the touch of
foreign soil. Britons in their island have, within
the last half century, lost even the tradition of a
Border. France has a constitution widely differing
from yours. In your constitution there is no body
of men whatever, who, upon any occasion, have
any obligation to know anything connected with
public, that is external affairs. In the French
Chamber there are committees established to ex-

(JonstUution subverted at Home.

103

amine every separate transaction, to make reports,
and, like those of the committee for foreign relations
of the United States, they guide public opinion ;
they are a perpetual check on the Minister, and
render misrepresentation difficult, and treason dan-
gerous.

Look now and see if you can discover in England
any thing of the kind. Do you find there a Su-
preme Court — do you liud an authoritative Coun-
cil ? Do you find a House of Lords supervising
foreign relations ? Do you find a House of
Commons investigating them, making reports, ex-
amining documents (as in the United States), calling
a Minister before them (as in France), to account for
his conduct ? Do you find a nation sensitive or
informed ? Do you find a Monarch powerful and
controlling ? Do you find responsibility hanging
over a Minister, either through the intelligence of the
Nation, or the supervision of authority ? None of
these are to be found. Did ever a state so consti-
tuted live ? The world affords no instance of such
life. Then look at the factions, the depravity that
neglects duty, and that now hails with joy, violence,
rapine, and bloodshed, perpetrated by its own hands
for its own destri -ition. The heart sickens at such
a display. Good heavens ! is this the state that you
commend ? Is this the empire which you expect to
endure ? Is this the society where you believe
treason impossible ? Is not such a people un-
worthy of any other fate ; and are we not reduced
to that point, where, like Poland, *' the nation, by

104

Jnteresfs compromised Abroad,

faction, having placed itself without the power of

action, yields its existence to the caprice or the
" treason of a single man* ?"

We lose then sight of the Minister and the Go-
vernment in the House of Commons ; but then the
House of Commons, is it not the representation of
England ? Is not the whole mind of England given,
and all its efforts directed to composing this assem-
bly of its discordant parts ? Is it not this very faculty
which Englishmen call a ri(jht, and by which they
conceive themselves elevated above the other men
existing throughout the world ? Is it not by the
nation's act that these men have been led on the
one hand to neglect that which is important, and on
the other to occupy themselves with that which is
insignificant? And if this body of men, entrusted
with functions too weighty for them to bear, have
first mismanaged, and then misrepresented affairs,
is it not the nation itself that is to blame, is it not
the nation that has given the power, and that is
to suffer by its misuse ?

In search of the causes of this mismanagement,
we have descended from the Minister to the Par-
liament — from the Parliament we have come to the
Nation, that is to each of ourselves. It is, therefore^
at home that we have to begin to remedy the evil,
and to arrest the danger. In ourselves we have to
detect, and from ourselves to cast away, passions that
flow from factious objects ; and the mental confusion

* Yattel.

Constitution subverted cU Home.

105

through ^ hich we have belonged to a faction, and
have thus become the enemies of our fellow citizens,
of our country, and rebellious to the laws of God
and man. Then may we receive oack to ourselves
charity for our fellow citizens, affection for our
country, and health for our souls. Can any intelli-
gent being stop short in following the chain that
connects the affections of the household with the
destiny of the state, and the permanency of the
political body to which he belongs ; who can speak
of public danger as a thing that regards him not,
whether as to the cause from which it springs, or
as to the consequences which will have to be
endured ; who can speak of public immorality,
excepting as that which he has assisted to produce,
and for which he will bear the penalty ? If so, the
thought of public immorality and of national dan-
ger will not be for him a vague and idle specula-
tion, but will bring feelings of deep contrition, and,
therefore, of usefulness to his country, because to
himself.

He who first transferred to the West some glim-
merings of the thoughts of the East, has left on
record these words : — " Unity amongst citizens, and
" power in the state, are to be found only where the
" aflfections of families are strong." How then can
decay be arrested, if not by restoring to the mind of
each individual, that health that makes men capable
of loving, and worthy of being loved ? The way
may be long — but is there any other ? The end

loa

Interests cmnpromised Abroad,

may be beyond our reach, but what other is worth
desiring ?

To return to the case before us. If the explana-
tion which I have given is true, what is the position
of those who do not see it ? Must they not accuse
the Americans for the act of the British Minister ?,
Will this crime be excused, or be innoxious because
it is the result of ignorance* ? And would not this
hatred and rancour aroused against the United
States sanction the criminal act of the Minister,
by the counter hostility it will arouse in America
against England ?

Thus will it be not the Minister in the end, who
will appear as the agent in that which he has pre-
pared ; it will be public opinion which will call for

* " Wiiilc England has been gradually cementing alliances with
the various nations of Europe — aliens though they be to her in
origin., language, interest, and habit, she finds the United States
of America — sprung from the same stock — governed by the same
unrivalled laws — speaking the same noble language, and con-
nected with her by the thousand apparent ties of commercial
interest and constant intercourse, steadily rejecting all attempts
to draw them into a firm and lasting alliance, fostering every
petty subject of dispute till it festers and inflames into a vene-
mous and dangerous ulcer — and fillowing every year to leave
wider and deeper than its predecessor, the great gulph which
prejudice and jealousy has opened between the two nations.
What can be the reason of this phenomenon ? Why should
America so pertinaciously endeavour to prevent," &c.

While these words are written and printed at Toronto, the
converse of the position is being detailed in the New York and
Boston press.

Constitution suhverted at Home.

107

the
and

— which will appear to drive him on to violence,
although that violence may not appear as flowing
from the present incident, which is but a step in a
long and a tortuous career.

This transaction is not alarming by any thing
connected with America, but alarming as revealing
the position of England — alarming as showing
that none of the functions associated w^ith the idea
of Government are performed, and none of the
rights consistent with the existence of a nation are
maintained — alarming as showing that the neglect
of the performance of duties and the destruc-
tion of rights, are revealed, and that a British
Senate and a British public, neither examines the
cause nor understands the acts, and loses itself in vain
and heedless disputation — alarming by the hope-
lessness of a people which is unable to detect guilt
that is palpable, or to exclude from the conduct of
affairs that idiotcy which it suggests as an excuse
for what it does not comprehend, and dares not
investigate,

I fancy I hear some one a stranger to this island
exclaim, " If your explanation is correct, there can
be no danger for England, since it is not foreign
hostility, but internal mismanagement which has
brought about these things— it is not foreign foes
with whose powers she has to cope, but internal
Treason which she has to judge. It is not the Con-
stitution that has decayed, but certain individuals,
who have formed a design against it, who are to be
punished."

lOB

hiterests rompromised Ahroady

The corruption of each mind is the bulwark
of that Treason. Who can admit that the whole
powers of the state are at the disposal of an
enemy, without admitting that every judgment he
has formed is worthless, that every act he has
performed is criminal ? There is the defence of guilt.
Treason can only exist because a nation is blind,
and that which leads to its existence, secures its
inviolability, and its triumph. Its inviolability and
its triumph is this—that it cannot be met until it
is understood, and it cannot be understood by such
men as have suffered it to exist ; if it were not so,
how could nations perish ?

Has he who has perused these pages, rendered to
himself an account of the crime which is involved in
the explanation here given of the case of Mr. M^Leod?
That crime is not the betrayal which closes the
eye, and allows an enemy to advance to some posi-
tion of neutral advantage, or of doubtful injury ; it
is not the betrayal of the state to the enemy
already an enemy, and whose mind is directed,
and whose power is exerted to inflict injury.
This is a crime, surpassing all that the black-
ness of man's heart has conceived — the energy
of man's tongue has expressed. It is that of
a Minister, who, having acquired full control over
the power of the state, as of the minds of the citi-
zens, has allied himself with a foreign Government,
and has given to it the means of becoming, under
the guise of friendship, a deadly foe ; and sits down,
by long deliberation, by scientific calculation, to

Constitution subverted at Home.

109

exaspc te every state against his native country,
quietly, secretly, to undermine rights, laboriously
to create injury, sedulously to expose weakness,
ostentatiously to display inj ustice. Thus not merely
to render an enemy triumphant, but to lay deep in
the heart of futuritv the seeds of continuous and
unremitting hate ; to bring ruin on the land whose
destinies he wields, — to stamp with undying infamy
the people he has ruined.

The tongue of our native land, as the instincts of
our human nature, recoil from the conception, and
are overwhelmed with the expression of such infamy
as this ; and it is because this conception is so black,
and this infamy is so fixed, that I, in exposing this
guilt, feel that I have the power to stamp the same
infamy on every man who listens to it, and who
has not the courage to grapple with, and the ability
to master it, and then to repel the false charge, or
to affirm — the awful truth.

I have seized the occasion of this passing incident
in America, as being a likely channel for spreading to
a larger number of persons the solemn declaration that
a Minister of England is the instrument of a hostile
state ; with that declaration I leave the reader : if it
is false, and he is unable to disprove it, he is no less
base, than, if being true, he remains ignorant and
inert.

To show that I have done what belonged to one
entertaining such a conviction — that I have asserted

110

Jnleresls vompromised Abroad,

it to the highest authority of the State — that I have
demanded inquiry at the hands of the first servant
of the Crown — that I have laid the additional re-
sponsibility of denunciation on the chiefs of both
the factions which divide this land, I subjoin the
following letters : —

London J
August 6th f 1840.

My Lord,

I have to lay before your Lord-
ship the following statement : —

By personal intercourse with Her Majesty's
Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs, in con-
nexion with public transactions during eight
years •,

By an examination of published Diplomatic
Papers ;

By the study of the speeches of that Minister
in the House of Commons, and of the acts of
Great Britain under his direction ;

I have come to the conclusion that that Minister
is, and has been, acting to further projects of
Russia hostile to Great Britain, using for that end
the power of Great Britain ; I, therefore, believe
him to be guilty of High Treason.

To you, as one of Her Majesty's Privy Coun-
cillors, and bound by oath * to do all that a good
and true councillor ought to do to his Sovereign
Lord;' and to you, as head of the Government,
whose concurrence is necessary to the perpetration
of this crime (if crime there be), and on whom

ConalUution suhvcrled at Home.

Ill

may fall the consequences of this guilt, even to
tile penal curtailment ol' your natural life, I make
thus solemnly the declaration of these my con-
victions — convictions revolting to our nature, and
therefore, admissible only after the most laborious
investigation — convictions now matured by time,
tested by events — supported by the concurrence of
men conversant with public affairs, and recently
and actually engaged in the service of the State.

1 have reserved this declaration till sufficient
indications of a change in public opinion had
appeared, to enable you to hope for public sup-
port in attempting to emancipate this Empire ;
and the recent act of the Foreign Minister brings
danger too near for any citizen to shrink from
the performance of his duty, or to leave option as to
the selection of time for performing it.

I impose on you now, by this declaration, the re-
sponsibility of inquiry, or of becoming, by refusing
to investigate, accessory to a crime, in the com-
mission of which, because of its heinousness,
accessories are principals.

I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient
and humble servant,

(Signed) D. URQUHART.

To the Right Hon.
Viscount Melbourne,
&c. &c. &c.

112

InleresU nnnpromhed Abroad.

Bittern Manor,
August 2^th, 1840,

My Lord Duke,

I enclose to your Grace a copy
of a letter addressed by me to the head of Her
Majesty's Government. The same responsibility
that lies on that servant of the Crown lies no less
upon your Grace, through whose support the Mi-
nister charged with the conduct of our Foreign
Relations has been enabled to do what he has
done, and to involve colleagues in the consequences
of his acts.

I have the honour to be.
My Lord Duke,
Your Grace's most obedient
and humble servant,

(Signed)

DAVID URQUHART.

His Grace
The Duke of Wellington,
&c. &c. &c.

113

POSTSCRIPT.

" Bearing over in mind the absolute impossibility of conquering
our foreign enemy until wo have punished those who "are serving
him within our walls." — Demosthenes.

Since these pages were written it is announced
that orders have been sent out to demand the imme-
diate liberation of Mr. M'^Leod, and that a squadron
is about to follow that order to enforce it. Concur-
rently with this intelligence, it is understood that
the French Government is to join the Treaty of the
15th of July, and that the affairs of the East are
settled.

After leading step by step the American Govern-
ment into this position, after allowing the debate of
the 7th of February to close and to be sent off to
America without avowing that the destruction of the
Caroline was an act of the Government — after de-
claring that the instructions which had failed were
all the instructions which were now again to be
forwarded — after leading the American Government
on from the position in which it was on the 20th of
December, 1837, until in the beginning of March,
1841, when about to bring Mr. M*=Leod to trial, it
was encouraged thereto by the parallel drawn by the

114

Postscript.

Foreign Secretary of Mr. M^'Leod with the outlaws
tried by the Courts of Canada — how is it that now
we hear that instructions are sent to the British
Envoy at Washington, to demand his passports,
unless Mr. M'^Leod is given up? Is this some
novel and contradictory decision, some sudden
awakening, some change in the holders of the reins
of power, or in the intentions of those who possess
them ? By no means — it is the consummation of
the past* ; the American Government is led on for a
purpose, and when placed so that it cannot retreat,
then is the result obtained which this labour had
been given to bring about, and put to profit for the
ends for which it was sought.

But it is not across the Atlantic that the causes
are to be traced of these difficulties, it is also else-
where that we must look if we wish to anticipate
the consequences. We have to consider what the
interest of Russia is in this transaction.

Bringing to bear upon this matter the knowledge
derived from the examination of other afTairs, we
will at once perceive that Russia has the same inte-
rests to advance in the United States as in every
other countryt : — that she has also there to disturb,

* And put in print in these pages before the event was an-
nounced, and in face of the declaration in the House of Commons
of the 7th and 8th February. — Note to Second Edition.

t " To mix ourselves up, at any price, and liy every possible
means, in all the compHcations of Europe."

Political Testament of Peter the Great.

From mixing herself up with complications, Russia has pro-
ceeded now to their production.

Postscript.

115

to confuse, to mislead, to involve in foreign compli-
cations, inspire with external ambition, and fears,
and animosities. Putting her direct objects in
America aside, what an enormous instrument in her
hands would not the United States become to act
with upon Europe. Look at the ascendancy which
she secures over England, from the moment that
she has rendered the United States hostile to
England. He who does not perceive this, would
not require that proof but that comprehension
should be given to him. Whoever understands
this will be at no loss to see what Russia has to
do to make the United States available ; ana what,
supposing she had the control, she would lead Eng-
land to do, in order to render England available, so
that each should become the enemy the one of the
other. That which it would be her object to do,
these pages detail as having been done*.

Russia has turned her face for the moment from
Europe to America, and England, her docile instru-
ment, serves equally her fiendlike purpose against the
one and against the other. Like France, the United
States will be distracted while exasperated, and in-
ternal party will be resolved into foreign faction.
You will have, first, a war party and a peace party ',
then, after that, according to the chances of position
in Europe, you will have an English and a Fjvnch,

* a

" If the measures which you take, are such as Philip would
pray the gods that they will inspire you with the idea of per-
forming, can you doubt the cause of your difficulties ?" — De-
mosthenes.

110

Postscript.

or an English and a Russian faction. England, by
assuming a system of menace against America, will
embitter against herself its spirit ; she will render
herself, by this new position, the object of increas-
ing dread and alarm to the powers of Europe : —
sentiments of hostility will be encouraged against
her on their part, by thus perceiving the increase of
animosity against her in the United States.

But it may be said these results cannot be worked
out, because there is no escape from the actual posi-
tion, and that immediate war must come. If it was
the design of Russia that war should be immediate,
we would not see amicable arrangements making
with France, nor would the appearance of settling
the Eastern Question be gone through, nor would
apparent harmony be preserved between the great
powers of Europe. If it were the intention of
Russia that there should be war at present between
the United States and England, encouragement to
the United States would be given in a rupture be-
tween England in France, in the menacing attitude of
Russia herself, in the breaking up of the conferences,
and rumours of alarm and practical reverses of Great
Britain in Central Asia. These things, some of which
at least each child knows that it is in the power of
Russia to bring about, do not, at least as yet, ap-
pear ; and we see that done which every child must
know that Russia might prevent, if so disposed.
Russia, therefore, must desire to leave England free
to act upon the United States ; and, therefore, she can
not have the present design of a struggle between them.

Postscript.

117

nd, by
!a, will
render
ticreas-
)pe: —
igainst
ease of

vorked
\\ posi-
it was
ediate,
aaking
ettling
would

great
ion of
Jtween
ent to
re be-
ude of
ences,
Great
which
ver of
it, ap-

must
)osed.
d free
le can
them.

England free to bring to bear her whole weight
upon America supported at once by an apparent
union with France, and union with 'Russia, what
balance is left to the United States, especially when
they have been encouraged in the line that they
have taken by the expectation of seeing the one
at open war with England, and the other ready
to join her adversary?
f But the United States Government having been
• led into this position of hostile outrage, it is impos-
sible for it to retract, without an immense sacrifice,
for it will be through dread of war.

Whether we look at the internal, the legal, or
the diplomatic position of the United States in this
transaction — whether we consider the effect it will
have upon opinion within, or the means of com-
pulsion that can be brought to bear upon it from
without, we can turn but from one image to ano-
ther of pusillanimity and of weakness. The casus
belli upon which the American Government and
people will have to decide on the event of a demand
of reparation from Great Britain, will be not only
the subject of division of opinion in regard to its
justice, but of separation of authority regarding
the liabilities of those who have acted, and a
second division of opinion will ensue upon a
question of internal government*. With opinion

* That question of internal government will be brought the
more prominently forward, in so far that the Minister in Eng-
land has hitherto led theqi on by his knowledge of this means of
action upon their minds. He has encouraged the General Go-

118

Postscript,

thus distracted — with power thus disconnected,
what will be the effect of the sudden revelation
of the whole power of Britain ready to fall upon
them !

First, — The whole coast of America, and her
commerce, and her existence in that commerce,
are exposed, the one to complete devastation,
the other to instant extinction. Thirty or forty sail-
of-the-line, if necessary, with troops for disembar-
kation, are disposable for such an object.

Secondly, — The North American colonies have
actually four times the number of troops that they
had when they successfully resisted the three inva-
sions of the United States, and captured three
armies in the last war ; and the spirit of the Ca-
nadas will again be revived by any movement
against the United States. This force is already
on the field of action.

Thirdly, — The South is completely exposed to

vernment to proceed, by ofifering to it as an excuse, the separate
powers of the states ; and an agent of his, recently sent to the
United States, lets it out that he had instructions in a certain
contingency to declare war against one separate state !

I have elsewhere spoken of the comparative intelligence of
the United States and England, in respect to the conduct of their
foreign affairs. I referred there merely to the checks upon pub-
lic mismanagement, which rendered treason impossible, or much
more difficult than in England ; but as to the general intelligence
of the country upon these matters, of course, there is little differ-
ence between any of the European and Gothic States. Were there
an able man, the Minister of Sardinia, I believe, the dangers of
the world would be averted.

Postscript.

119

nected,
^elation
[ upon

nd her
imerce,
Jtation,
ty sail-
embar-

5 have
it they
e inva-
three
he Ca-
sement
Iready

sed to

separate
to the
certain

ence of
of their
an pub-
f much
ligence
difFer-
re there
gers of

the fearful means of aggression which could be
brought by England to tell on that quarter.

If the Seminole war disturbs the repose of
the United States at this moment, and if it be
an object to bring it to a close, with the view
of enabling them to meet a European foe, what will
be the image rising upon their imagination of a
Canadian war of invasion, an Indian war, and a ser-
vile insurrection — a blockade of their whole coast, a
liability to invasion at every accessible point, a total
annihilation of credit and of commerce, with thou-
sands of miles of undefended territory, without a
protecting fortress, with the most splendid means
for transporting an enemy to the heart of their
wealth, population, and power; and thus couped
up while thus exposed, in perfect inability to strike
a single blow at their adversary ! This, in a nation
composed of states distinct in authority, separate
in interest, and in feelings ! Can there be a
question of resistance, and with such means in
reserve, and such threats to use, and such thunders
to call down, will they be spared ? Will they not
have to pass through the agonies prepared now
for them, as hitherto, for the decomposing Govern-
ments and States of Asia and of Europe ? Will
they not deserve this fate, they who, like England
and France, presume to deal with diplomatic
affairs while not possessed of a single man un-
derstanding them ? And will their fate be a
warning to this land — No, it will be a triumph !
Besides the vision of these physical means.

120

Postscript.

what will be the impression made upon America by
the attitude of England, appearing to their eyes
united with France, at the very moment that
they expected a sudden explosion between the
two countries — arresting to their eyes the designs of
Russia, and compelling from her co-operation and
support — settling the affairs of the East — succeeding
in all she attempts, and triumphing wherever she
appears — supported with this array of strength,
and by this accumulation of success, she now turns
round upon America with her united power, and
her undivided energies, turns with the whole of
Europe at her back, not to carry on a war of
aggression, so as to give a necessity for resistance,
so as to unite its opinions while arousing its
energies, but to seek vengeance for a judicial
outrage ! What can follow but submission*—

* This effect is already evident in the United States.
" Troubles with England."

" The attentive observer of recent events will not be surprised
that we express the opinion that the course of events on our
Northern and Eastern border is tending rapidly and surely to a
serious rupture, and probably a war, between the United States
and Great Britain ! This opinion has not been lightly or hastily
formed ; we shall be grateful if the future shall prove it mistaken
— but unfounded it cannot be.

" That we are totally unprepared for a war with the most
formidable naval power on the globe — that England would sweep
our commerce from the seas, burn our seaports, ravage our bor-
ders, slaughter thousands of our people, and probably send the
flame of fierce insurrection through our Southern States, before
we could commence the fight in earnest, are obvious enough.

Postscript.

121

submission which will he only gradually re-
quired, and which, as it is yielded, will be en-
forced by a further and a further demand, while
the constant alternative is placed before them of a
small concession at a time, or an impracticable
rupture ?

What, then, will be the position of Great Bri-
tain in the progress of this contest with Ame-
rica, as yet tender and moulding into form ?
She will have triumphed over France, and have
reduced her to subserviency ; she will appear the
arbiter of the destinies of the Ottoman Empire ; she
will appear the controller of the policy of Russia ;
she will, perhaps, be permitted to appear as having
imposed laws on China ; she will, perhaps, be made
to place another monarch on the throne of Persia.
She will have extended her influence, perhaps her
arms, north of the Paropamisus into the unknown
regions of Tartary*.

In proportion as England will be insecure — in

That we should eventually vindicate our national fame, drive the
enemy from our territory, and probably retaliate upon them some
of the evils they had inflicted upon us, is very probable. But
would this be worth its cost of one hundred thousand lives,
five hundred millions' worth of property, and the loss of half a
century in the cause of virtue, happiness, and social virtue ? We
think not." — From the New Yorker.

* For the immediate objects of Russia in making England
advance into Central Asia— aS'a' " Exposition of Transactions in
Central Asia," Part XIII.

122

Post script.

proportion as nations will be inspired with hostility
against her — will she appear pre-eminent and pre-
dominant. It is in proportion as she will be reduced
to subserviency to Russia, that this external predo-
minance will be in evidence; and it is by that
reduction of subserviency to Russia that she will be
endangered by the hostility of other nations, and
other nations by her's. For this purpose, the means
are more available for Russia in Asia. This re-acts
upon Europe ; there she will be allowed to appear
as reducing Prussia and Austria to the position of
satellites, in as far as it is necessary to arouse their
ill will. Within the sphere of this action will now
be brought the trans-atlantic regions, and more
especially the United States people and government.
The spirit of the republicans will be humbled at
present, but no wound will be closed, and every
sore kept running ; new difficulties will succeed to
these new embarrassments, to satisfy the love of
news and changes — the disputed territory differences
will be worked out, and that sore will be spread
until the whole of the union is infected ; and when
it is requisite, there is the territory in dispute
to occupy, and the further portions of the union to
invade, to which Britain now lays claim. Thus
will this globe of ours be ripened — be rotted — while
England, in preparing this futurity of desolation for
the human race, will appear elevated to the loftiest
station of human grandeur.

This I tell you before-hand, as the line of

Postscnpl.

123

the accomplishment of the ends of Russia, as the
plain and simple road* for a power to take that
aims at universal dominion when it has got an
agent in the British Cabinet, which is to lead th.
empire, the defence of international right, to do those
things by which international right is destroyed, to
render her own aggressions respectable by the worse
example of the defender of rightf ; and, finally, to
make the eyes of all men and nations turn towards
her for deliverance from British injustice; to seek
refuge in her against this excess of fortune, and to
prepare men's minds in the person of England for
Muscovite domination.

So it was that Philip decomposed the states of
Greece, the one after the other, and the one by the
other, and he who endeavoured to save Athens,
raised his warning voice chiefly to make his coun-
trymen comprehend the meaning of the kindnesses
and the end of the favours of the Macedonian.
Having examples around, in states that had sunk

* This elevation of England would be required to sustain the
men or the policy in England, by which these ends are to be at-
tained, only in case the one or the other was endangered.

t " England, without alarming any state, on the score of its
liberty, because that nation seems cured of the rage of conquest —
England, I say, has the glory of holding the political balance ;
she is attentive to preserve it in equilibrium." — Vattel.

Alas from that England how changed !

" For you are not naturally given to the love of conquest,
and to maintain the liberty of states is your particular oxccllence."
— Demosthenes.

124

Postscript.

before their eyes, he could point to Amphipoh's
— Olynthus, and then say in sounds that were
InteHigible, " after having been for a while gratified
" by the possession of the territory of others, they
*' have been despoiled for ever of their own."

125

APPENDIX.

No. I.

Page 29.

" The (jtyantlc schemes of umhiiion revevlcd hy England
in every quarter of the Globe.''''

The assault of Eiighuul upon Central Asia, tlie
assault of England upon China, opens the two
mighty regions, lying between Russia and India, to
the influence of Russia — regions where there was no
()Ossibility of any practical influence of hers, except
through the aggressions and the violence of
England. These acts of monstrous crime do not
bear for Russia that fruit alone which she has to
reap in Asia and in India, but also the fruit which
she lias to reap in Europe and in America, by the
hatred she can, by Britain's act, arouse against
Britain. Thus while, by her agent in the Bri-
tish Cabinet, prolonging the struggle in the Pe-
ninsula, obtaining the partition of the Ottoman
empire, alarming through Naples, Italy and Central
Europe with revolution, does she also obtain that
England should violate international law, and
become feared as an aggressor ? Thereby she
destroys, throughout the world, at once respect for
law and confidence in England : by the first,
lowering the value of every human being on the

126

Apprndij'.

liice ol" the cuitli ; by tlie second, aiiiliiliitiiig tlie
power ol" the state that could alone have resisted
her. Then, by the very perfection of the system
that carries its threads so far — that gives such
largeness to its design and such variety to its com-
position, is the very idea of system destroyed in the
mind of the close and narrow observer ; and being
furnished with a multiplicity of facts which he
does not comprehend, and yet regarding each of
which he is in the constant habit of expressing
opinions, is inextricable confusion spread over the
world.

The following extract from a French paper may
give some conception of Russia's gain in England's
acts : —

" England has acquired, by the Treaties of 1815, the
strongest positions on the Mediterranean. She possesses
there Malta, Gibraltar, and tlie Ionian Isles. This was not
enough. She has taken possession of St. Jean d'Acre, and
has placed her feet at the same time in Egypt and in Syria.

" In America she possessed twenty-six colonies, embracing
a \ery extensive territory ; but not satisfied therewith, she
uuist encroach on the territory of her neighbours.

" She had inmiense possessions in India — their immensity
(lid not afford her breathing room, and she found it neces-
sary to seize on two kingdoms in the West, on the ])eninsida
of Malacca, and the adjoining provinces ; while in the East,
she has advanced to the confines of Affghanistan, and posted
her soldiers on the frontiers of Persia. It was not enough
to possess, in the direction of China, the Prince of Wales's
Island and Singapore, she has thought it necessary to attack
China itself, and has already possessed herself of Chusan.

" In Africa, it was not sufficient to deprive Holland of the
Cape of Good Hope, France of the Mauritius, to oppose our
settling at Madagascar, and to establish settlements there

Appendlr.

127

licrsoir, she Ims lieinnied in all the coasts of that contiiu'nt —
slit' is ill Sierra Leone, in Seiie^ainbia, on the Gold ('oast,
the Ascension Islands, Fernando Po, &c.

" Slie was not satisfied witli having two ports in the lied
Sea, but has taken possession of Aden.

" Are there any other seas, any other continents — seek an
inhabited or an uninhabited spot — where she has not planted
lier flag? All lands newly discovered she unhesitatingly
attributes to herself. Ikit yesterday, in violation of all jus-
tice, she issued a decree, by which she takes possession of
New Zealand.

" AVhere will this insolent usurpation cease? What ba-
lance can exist in the world in face of this ambition,
which increases with con([uest, and becomes extravagant by
dint of impunity ? It is not our nation, but every nation,
which should open their eyes. It is essential, not for a
people, but for every people, to know whether the ocean is
free, and if the universe is to fall back in presence of the
shop-keeping Ctesars, who avail themselves of the disunion
of states to turn them all to account, and to aggrandise
themselves on their common ruin."

National^ March 1811.

No. II.

Extract from Mr. Ad AW!i\ Letter to the Spanish Govern-
fnent, November 28, 1818.

The necessity of crossing the line was indispensable,
for it was from beyond the line that the Indians matle their
murderous incursions within that of the United States. It
was there that they had their abode, and the territory
belonged in fact to them, although within the borders of
the Spanish jurisdiction.

13y all the laws of neutrality and cf war, as well as of
prudence and of humanity — he was warranted in antici-
pating his enemy, by the amicable, and that being refused,
by the forcible occupation of the fort. There will need
no citations from printed treaties on international law, to
])rove the correctness of this principle. It is engraven in

128

Appendiv,

adamant on the common sense of mankind — no writer upon
the laws of nations ever pretended to contradict it — none of
any reputation or authority ever omitted to assert it.

The President will neither inflict punishment, nor pass
a censure, upon General Jackson for that conduct, the
motives of which were founded in the purest patriotism, of
the necessity for which, he had the most effectual means of
forming a judgment, and the vindication of which is writ-
ten in every page of the law of nations, as well as in the
law of nature — self-defence.

The obligation of Spain to restrain by force the
Indians of Florida, from hostilities against the United
States and their citizens, is explicit, is unqualified. The
fact that they have received shelter, assistance, supplies,
and provisions, in the practice of such hostilities, from the
Spanish commander in Florida, is clear and unequivocal.
If, as these commanders have alleged, this has been the
result of their weakness, rather than their will, it may serve
in some measure to exculpate, individually, those officers,
but it nujst carry demonstration irresistibly to the Spanish
Government, that the rights of the United States can as
little compound with impotence as with perfidy.

Tlic United States liave a right to demand, as the Pre-
sident does demand of Sj)ain, the punishment of those
officers for this misconduct, and he further demands of
Spain a just and reasonable indenmity to the United States,
for the heavy and necessary exj;enses which they have been
compelled to incur, by the failure of Spain to fulfil her
engagements to restrain the Indians, aggravated by tin's
demonstrated duj)licity of her commanding officers with
tliem, in their hostilities against the United Slates.

No. III.

CorttiWpornry Statement of the Case of the Caroline, in a
New YorJc Newspaper^ the *' Courier and Inquirer.^''

Upper Canada. — The information from the Ni;igara
frontier, which we publish this morning, is of serious im-

Appcndiv.

129

port, and well calcnlatcd to excite tlic apprehensions of all
who have at heart the peace and the interests of the coun-
try. A direct violation of our territory has taken place,
and the first feeling of every American should be to repel
it; but while we thus give vent to our patriotic impulses,
and exhibit a determination which belongs to a great
peoj)le, never to suffer an aggression u])on our soil, it is
due to justice and to our national character, to pause and
reflect upon the causes which have led to this violation of
our territory, and suffer reason rather than passion to in-
fluence our opinions and actions.

In the first place, then, have we as a government,
faithfully discharged the duty of neutrals, imposed upon
us by the law of nations, by oui treaties with England,
and the laws of the land ? We think not. We know
that our governor has issued his paper proclamation against
all interference, and that the general government has called
upon its district attorney and marshal rigorously to enforce
tile laws of the United States relative to our national obli-
gations as neutrals ; but we also know, that in the face of
this proclamation, and the call upon two officers of the
general government to do their duty, large bodies of
American citizens, with arms in their hands, have passed
over to Navy Island, a part of the British territory, with
the avowed purpose of making war upon Canada ! This,
it will be said, could not be prevented. We admit that it
could not be with any force at the immediate command of
the Government ; but when this fact became notorious ;
when it was apparent to all that the civil authority could
not prevent these daily and open breaches of neutrality ;
was it not the imperative duty of the administration to
make a re(|uisition upon the governor of this state to order
out the miiitia, and thus enforce obedience to our own
laws, and to our national obligations ? But no such requi-
siiion has been made, no military force has been called upon
to comj)el obedience to our laws, but day after day they
have continued to be openly vit.lated.

What then ? Did not this inahility — for expressing
as we did, a desire to enforce the obligations imj)osed upon

130

AppendLv.

lis as neutrals, our not succeeding in doing so, was a con-
fession of our mahility to do it — did not such inability
give to tlie Canadian authorities the right to protect them-
selves, even by passing into our country, and thus violating
our territory ? How was it with regard to Florida when
a province of Spain ? We called upon Spain to protect
us from the aggressions constantly made upon us by her
Indians, and we complained that her citizens furnished
them with means to carry on their depredations against our
people. Spain promised to do what was requisite, and
actually issued her orders, as we hear, to prevent these
aggressions ; but she was unable to do what we demanded,
and we, exercising a right secured to us by the law of
nations, took possession of the Floridas, prevented their
longer annoying us, and then declared our willingness to
surrender them to her whenever she was prepared to re-
ceive them, and enforce obedience to the obligations which
the law of nations imposed upon her. England and
every other nation recognised our right thus to act ; nor
has it ever been questioned by any civilized power.

Now let us apply this case to the attack upon the
Caroline. The boat was openly employed, during the
whole of the 30th, in transporting hostile Americans into
the territory of a nation with whom we are at peace, in vio-
lation not only of the law of nations, but of our own statutes
and proclamations. We declared our willingness, as a
nation, to prevent it, but in truth exhibited our inahilit'^
to do so ; and we would ask, whether, under such circum-
stances, the authorities of Canada had not a right to cap-
ture her, wherever she might be, and thus compel that
respect for the rights of a neighbouring nation, which we,
apparently, could not enforce ?

Ajijundi.r.

131

» a con-
mability
ct them-
aolating
da when

protect

by her
irnished
inst our
ite, and
It these
nanded,

law of
d their
ness to

to re-
3 which
id and
2t; nor

an the
tig the
ns into
in vio-
itatutes
> as a
ahilit'if
ircum-

cap-

1 that
ch we.

No. IV.

Papers presented to Co7igress relative to the Arrest of
Mr. M'^Leod, on account of the Burning of the Steamer,
" Caroline:'

MR. FOX to MR. FORSYTH.

Washington, Dee. 13, 1840.

Sir, — I am informed by his Excellency the Lieutenant-
Governor of the Province of Upper Canada, that Mr. Alex-
ander M'^Leod, a British subject, the late deputy sheriff of the
Niagara district in Upper Canada, was arrested at Lewiston,
in the state of New York, on the 12th of last month,
on a pretended charge of murder and arson, as having
been engaged in the capture and destruction oi the piratical
steam-boat Caroline, in the month of December 1837.
After a tedious and vexatious examination, Mr. M'^Leod
Avas committed for trial, and he is now imprisoned in Lock-
port gaol.

I feel it my duty to call upon the Government of the
United States to take prompt and eft'ectual steps for the
liberation of Mr. M'^Leod. It is well known that the
destruction of the steam-boat Caroline was a public act of
persons in Her Majesty's service, obeying the order of their
superior authorities. That act, therefore, according to the
usages of nations, can only he the subject of discussion
hetweeji the two national Governments. It cannot justly
be made the ground of legal proceedings in the United
States against the individuals concerned, who were bound
to obey the authorities appointed by their own Government.

I may add that I believe it is quite notorious that Mr.
M'^Leod was not one of the party engaged in the des-
truction of the steam-boat Caroline, and that the pretended
charge upon which he has been imprisoned, rests only upon
the perjured testimony of certain Canadian outlaws and
their abettors, who, unfortunately for the peace of that
neighbourhood, are still permitted by the authorities of the
state of New York to infest the Canadian fronlier.

132

Append i.r.

The (jiicstion, however, of wliether Mr. M'^Leod was or
was not concerned in tlie destruction of the Caroline, is
beside the ])ur})ose of the present communication. That act
was the public act of persons obeyin^r the constituted au-
tiiorities of Her Majesty's province. The National Govern-
ment of the United States thought themselves called upon to
remonstrate against it ; and a remonstrance which the Presi-
dent did accordingly address to Her Majesty's Government
is still, / helleiie^ a pending subject of diplomatic discussion
between Her Majesty's Government and the United States'
legation in London. I feel, therefore, justified in expecting
that the President's Government will see the justice and
the necessity of causing the present immediate release of
Mr. M'^Leod, as well as of taking such steps as may be
requisite for preventing others of Her Majesty's subjects
from being persecuted or molested in the United States in
a similar manner for the future.

It appears that Mr. M'^Leod was arrested on the IStli
ult. ; that, after the examination of witnesses, he was
finally committed for <^rial on the 18th, and placed in con-
finement in the gaol at Lockport, awaiting the assizes, which
will be held there in February next. As the case is na-
turally occasioning a great degree of excitement and in-
dignation within the British frontier, 1 earnestly hope that
it may be in your power to give me an early and satisfactory
answer to the present representation.

1 avail myself of this occasion to renew to you the
assurance of my distinguished consideration.

Hon. John Fousyth, &c. 11. S. Fox.

MU. FOllSYTH TO MK. FOX.

Department of State, Waalibigfoii, Dec. 26, 1840.

Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge, and have laid
before the President, your letter of the 13th inst., touching
the arrest and imprisonment of Alexander M'^Lcod, a
British subject, and late deputy sheriff of the Niagara dis-
trict, in Upper Canada, on a charge of murder and arson,
as having been engaged in the capture and destruction of
the steam-boat Caroline, in the month of December 1837 ;

Appendix.

133

cl was or
roline, is

That act
uted au-

Govern-
I upon to
he Presi-
'ernment
iscussion
1 States'*
xpecting
tice and
jlease of

may be
subjects
tates in

^e 12th
he was
in con-
i, whicli
is na-
md in-
)e that
factory

3U the

^*'ox.

1840.

e laid
chiiiiT
'od, a
a dis-
arson,
on of
837;

in respect to whicli you state that you feel it your duty to
call upon the Government of the United States to take
prompt and effectual steps for the liberation of Mr. M^Leod,
and to prevent others of the subjects of Her Majesty the
Queen of Great Britain from being persecuted or molested
in a similar manner for the future.

This demand, with the grounds upon which it is made,
has been duly considered by the President, with a sincere
desire to give to it such a reply as will not only manifest a
proper regard for the character and rights of the United
States, but at the same time tend to preserve the amicable
relations which, so advantageously for both, subsist between
this country and England. Of the reality of this disposi-
tion, and of the uniformity with which it has been evinced
in the many delicate and difficult questions which have
arisen between the two countries in the last few years, no
one can be more convinced than yourself. It is then with
unfeigned regret that the President finds himself unable to
recognise the validity of a tlemand, a com])liance with which
you deem so material to the preservation of the good un-
derstanding which has hitherto been manifested between
the two countries.

The jurisdiction of the several states which constitute
the union is, within its ajapropriate sphere, perfectly inde-
pendent of the Federal Government. The offence with
whicli Mr. M^IiCod is charged, was committed within the
territory and against the laws and citizens of the state of
New York, and is one that comes clearly within the com-
petency of her tribunals. It does not, therefore, present an
occasion where, under the constitution and laws of the
union, the interposition called for woidd be proper, or for
which a warrant can be found in the powers with which
the federal executive is invested. Nor would the circum-
stances to which you have referred, or the reasons you have
urged, justify the exertion of such a power, if it existed.
The transaction out of which the cjuestion arises, presents
the case of a most unjustifiable invasion, in time of peaces
of a portion of the territory of the United States, by a band
of armed men from the adjacent territory of Canada, tlie

134

Appcndt.v.

forcible capture by them within our own waters, and tlie
subsequent destruction of a steam-boat, tlie property of a
citizen of the United States, and the murder of one or more
American citizens. If arrested at the time, the offenders
might unquestionably have been brought to justice by the
judicial authorities of the state within whose acknowledged
territory these crimes were committed, and their subsequent
voluntary entrance within that territory places them in the
same situation. The President is not aware of any principle
of international law, or indeed of reason or justice, whicli
entitles such offenders to impunity before the legal tribu-
nals, when coming voluntarily within their independent and
undoubted jurisdiction, because they acted in obedience to
their superior authorities, or because their acts have become
the subject of diplomatic discussion between the two go-
vernments. These methods of redress, the legal prosecu-
tion of the offenders, and the application of their govern-
ment for satisfaction, are independent of each other, and
may be separately and simultaneously pursued. Tlie
avowal or justification of the outrage by the British authc-
rities might be a ground of complaint with the Government
of the United States, distinct from the viclation of the ter-
ritory and laws of the state of New York. The application
of the government of the union to that of Great Britain,
for the redress of an authorised outrage of the peace, dig-
nity, and rights of the United States, cannot deprive the
state of New York of her undoubted right of vindicating,
through the exercise of her judicial power, the property
and lives of her citizens. You have very properly regarded
the alleged absence of Mr. M'^Leod from the scene of the
offence at the time it was committed, as not material to the
decision of the present question. That is a matter to be
aecided by legal evidence; and the sincere desire of the
President is, that it may be satisfactorily established. If
the destruction of the Caroline zvas a public act of persons
in Her Majesty's service, obeying the order of their supe-
rior authorities, this fact has not been before, communi-
cated to the Government of the United States by a person
authorised to make the admission, and it will be for the

Appendlr.

135

IkI the
jy of a
|i' more
enders
by the
|1 edged
quent
in the
nciple
which
tribu-
nt and
!nce to
)ecome
\o o'o-

osecii-
overn-
r, and
The
authc-
nment
he ter-
cation
ritain,
3, dig-
ve the
ating,
)perty
arded
>f the
to the
to be
»f tile

• If

rsons

supe-
tuni-
^rson

I" the

court, which has taken cognisance of the offence with which
Mr. M^Leod is charged, to decide upon its validity, when
legally established before it.

The President deems this to be a proper occasion to re-
mind the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, that tlie
case of the Caroline has been long since brought to the
attention of Her Majesty's principal Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, who, up to this day, has not commu-
nicated his decision thereupon. It is hoped that the Go-
vernment of Her Majesty will perceive the importance of no
longer leaving the Government of the United States unin-
formed of its views and intentions upon a subject which
has naturally produced much exasperation, and which has
led to such grave consequences.

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you the as-
surance of my distinguished consideration.

H. S. Fox, Esq., &c. John Forsyth.

Mil. fox to MR. FORSYTH.

Washington, Dec, 29, 1840.

Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 26tli inst., in which, in reply to a letter
which I had addressed to you on the 13th, you acquaint me
that the President is not prepared to comply with my de-
mand for the liberation of Mr. Alexander M'^Leod, of
Upper Canada, now imprisoned at Lockport, in the state
of New York, on a pretended charge of murder and arson,
as having been engaged in the destructioyi of the piratical
steam-boat Caroline on the 9Qth of December, 1837.

I learn with deep regret that such is the decision of
the President of the United States, for I cannot but foresee
the very grave and serious consequences that must ensue, if,
besides the injury already inflicted upon Mr. M'^Leod, of a
vexatious and unjust imprisonment, any further harm
should be done to him in the progress of this extraordinary
proceeding.

I have lost no time in forwarding to Her Majesty's Go-
vernment in England the correspondence that has taken
place, and shall await the further orders of Her Majesty's

130

Api

ucndix

Government with respect to tlic important question which
tliat correspondence involves.

But I feel it my duty not to close this comnnmication
without likewise testifying my vast regret and surprise at
the expressions which I find repeated in your letter, with
reference to the destruction of the steam-boat Caroline. I
had confidently hoped that the^>*6'^ erroneous impressions
of the character of that event, imposed upon the mind of
the United States'* Government by partial and exaggerated
representations, would long since been effaced by a more
strict and accurate e.vamination of the facts. Such an
investigation must even yet, I am willing to believe, lead
the United States' Government to the same conviction with
which Her Majesty's authorities on the spot were impressed,
that the act was one, in the strictest sense of self-defence,
rendered absolutely necessary by the circumstances of the
occasion, for the safety and protection of Her Majesty's sub-
jects, and justified by the same motives and principles
wliich, upon similar and well-known occasions, have go-
verned the conduct of illustrious officers of the United
States.

The steam-boat Caroline was a hostile vessel, engaged
in piratical war against Her Majesty's people, hiretl from
her owners for that express purpose, and known to be so
beyond tlie possibility of doubt.

The place where the vessel was destroyed was nomi-
nally, it is true, within the territory of a friendly power ;
but the friendly power had been deprived, through over-
bearing piratical violence, of the use of its proj^cr authority
over that portion of territory. The authorities of New
York had not even been able to prevent tlie artillery of the
state from being carried off publicly, at mid-day, to be used
as instruments of war against Her Majesty's subjects. It
was under such circumstances, which it is to be hoped will
never recur, that the vessel was attacked by a party of Her
Majesty's people, captured, and destroyed.

A remonstrance against the act in question has been
addressed by the United States to Her M;ijesty\s Govern-
ment in England. I am not authorised to pronounce the

Apprmlir.

1.57

which

cation
rise at
I, with
le. I
visions
(lid of
'rated
more
icli an
lead
1 witl)
•essed,
:'fcnce,
of the
's sub-
K'iples
/e go-
Jnited

igagcd

from

be so

nonn-
ower ;

over-
lority

New
jf the
' used

5. It

I will
■ Her

been
vein-

^ the

decision of Her Majesty ""s Government upon that remon-
strance, but I have felt myself bound to record, in the mean
time, the above opinion, in order to protest in the most
solemn manner against the spirited and loyal conduct of a
party of Her Majesty's officers and people being qualified,
through an unfortunate misa{)prehension, as 1 believe, of
the facts, with the appellation of outrage or of murder.

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you the
assurance of my distinguished consideration.

H. S. Fox.

MR. FORSYTH TO MR. FOX.

Department of State, Washington, Dec. 31, 1840.

Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of
your note of the 23rd inst., in reply to mine of the 26th, on
the subject of the arrest and detention of Alexander M*^Leod,
as one of the perpetrators of the outrage committed in New
York, when the steam-boat Caroline was seized and burnt.
Full evidence of that outrage has been presented to Her
Majesty's Government with a demand for redress, and of
course no discussion of the circumstances here can be either
useful or proper, nor can I suppose it to be your desire to
invite it. I take leave of the subject with this single re-
mark, that the opinion so strongly expressed by you on the
facts and principles involved in the demand for reparation
on Her Majesty's Government by the United States, would
hardly have been hazarded had you been possessed of the
carefully-collected testimony which has been presented to
your government in support of that demand,

I avail myself of the occasion to renew to you the as-
surance of my distinguished consideration.

John Forsyth.

No. V.
DISCUSSION IN PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

. Feb. 8th, 1841.

Lord MouNTCASHEL having put some questions rela-
tive to Mr. M^'Leod,

las

Appinidir.

Viscount Melbourne said he would not enter into the
statement and arguments made use of by the noble lord,
but simply confine himself to answer the questions — (hear).
Her Majesty's Government certainly received information
that an individual of the name of M^'Leod, a British subject,
had been arrested by the authorities of New York, on a
charge of arson and murder, stated to have been committed
by him on the occasion of the destruction of the steam-lx)at
Caroline. Immediately on hearing of the chavge made
against this individual, Mr. Fox, our minister a'- Washing-
ton, had demanded his liberation from the general Govern-
ment. He had received a reply, stating that the matter
entirely rested with tlie authorities of the state of New
York, and that it was neither in the power, nor was it the
intention of the general Government to procure his libera-
tion. That was the position in which the matter at present
stood. As to what Her Majesty's Government meant to do
under these circumstances, he (Lord Melbourne) was sure
their lordships would not, in the present state of the subject,
consider that lie was called upon to give any answer —
(hear, hear). At the same time, he could assure the noble
lord and the House that Her Majesty's Ministers had taken
every means in their power to secure the safety of Her Ma-
jesty''s subjects, and the preservation of the honour of the
British nation — {hear, hear).

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

February Sth,18^\.
Lord Stanley having stated the case of Mr. M'^Leod,
said, that inasmuch as negociation had commenced upon
the subject of the burning of the Caroline, since January
1838, between Her Majesty's Government and the Govern-
ment of the United States, he wished to ask, in the first
place, whether Her Majesty's Government would have any
objection to lay on the table the entire of the correspond-
ence which had taken place upon the subject of the destruc-
tion of the Caroline ? and, also, whether the despatches had
all been received, which had been referred to by Mr. Fox
in the recent accounts, and particularly that which had
been transmitted on the 29th of December last, announcing
the apprehension of Mr. M^'Leod. He (Lord Stanley)

Aj)j)f'n<U.t'.

1 :vj

hf^gi'd to ask further, whether Her Majt'sty's Government
had taken any steps towards procuring the release of Mr.
M^I^eod from liis present confinement ? and, if so, whether
they would lay upon the table the nature of those steps,
and the correspondence which had passed upon tliis subject
between the Government of the LFnited States and Her
Majesty's Ministers.

Viscount Palmerston rose and said, the noble lord
had adverted at much length to a subject of extreme in-
terest, and which, from the great delicacy of its, nature,
involved consideraticms of a grave and serious character to
two great countries — {hear). He (Viscount Palmerston)
was sure that this House would think with him that this sub-
ject should be touched very lightly and with great delicacy
— (^ hear, hear,"" from the ministeritt lists). With reference
to the statement which had just been made by the noble
lord, the piember for North Lancashire, as to the proceed-
ings which had taken place relating to the subject before
them, nnd the particular circumstances whicli preceded the
apprehension of Mr. M'^Leod, they were strictly correct.
He (V^iscc.mt Palmerston) would first answer the question
which the noble lord (Stanley) had put to him, before he
would state one word in explanation. He thought it would
not be exj)edient in the present state of the question to lay
upon the table the correspondence relating to the capture
and destruction of the Caroline, until that correspondence
was brought to a final close — (' hear, hear,"* from the mi-
nisterialists). He begged to inform the noble lord that
despatches had been received, enclosing copies of the cor-
respondence which had taken place between Mr. Fox and
Mr. Forsyth, the Foreign Minister of the United States
Government. These notes had been already published in
the American papers, and he (Viscount Palmerston) would,
of course, have no objection to lay those documents which
had been already published on the table — {laughter). But
this was a departure from what he considered an important
rule in regard to international affairs— (/i^ or, hear) — and
one which might operate injuriously to national interests, to
lay before parliament documents relating to pending discus-

1 U)

Apf

)rmi

sions. Ho tlioiif^ht it iuijjortant to inakf, witli roferciicc to
the notice to Mr. Forsyth, one ohscrvation. The noble
lord (Stanley) had said, that he believed Mr. iVFLeod
was not one of the party by whom the Caroline had been
attacked. Ilis (Lord P.^hnerston's) information went pre-
cisely to the same conclusion — tiiat he, Mr. M^'Leod, was
not a member of the party that was concerned in the de-
struction of the Caroline ; but with regard to the ground
taken by Mr. Forsyth in replying to Mr. Fox, he (Lord
Palmerston) thought it right to say that the American Go-
vernment undoubtedly mio;ht have considered this iransac-
firm either as a transaction to be dealt with hetivecn the
two Governments^ Inj demands for redress, on the one
hand to he granted, or refused on the other, and to be
dealt with accordingly ; or it might have been considered
as the British authorities consider proceedings between
American citizens on the British side of the border, as
matter to be dealt tcitli by the local authorities. But the
American Government had chosen the former course, by
treating this matter as one to be decided between the two
Governments, and this reus the ground on which they were
entitled to demand redress from the British Government
for the acts of its subjects. He was sure the House would
think with him, that in a matter of such extreme difficulty
it would be improper for him to enter into any further re-
marks or observations, and he would therefore content him-
self with answering the noble lord's questions by stating
those important facts which he had then mentioned.

Lord Stanley said that the noble lord who had just
sat down had omitted to answer one question which he
(Lord Stanley) considered to be of the deepest interest.
That question was, whether the noble lord (Palmerston) had
taken any steps, and if so, what those steps were, for the
protection and liberation of Mr. M'^Leod — {hear, hear).

Viscount Palmerston said that a case somewhat simi-
lar in principle to the present was expected about a year
and a half ago, and instructions were sent at that time to
Mr. Fox, on which he founded the communication he made
to the American authorities. Of course the House would

ippnidi.v.

Ill

to
l)ble
cod

suppose, he triistctl, tliiit Her ]\I;ijesty\s Government hdd
already sent certain instructions, hut until the correspond-
ence upon the suhject had concluded it was impossible to
send ap^ mstructions that could he considered final. lie
hoped the House would believe that the Goverinnent would
send to Mr. Fox such further instructions as they might
think it their duty to do; at the same time he was not pre-
pared to state what the nature of those instructions were —
{hear).

Mr. Hume said he wished to ask the House to suspend
their opinion upon the subject until they had the whole of
the papers laid before the House. He had himself })apers
in his possession that would ex})lain many things connected
with this question, and which, by-the-bye, were not exactly
consistent with the statement which had just been made.
By the statement which had taken ])lace in the House of
Congress, it appeared thut the Government of the United
States had been ignorant of any informatiou that could lead
them to suppose that the enterprise against the Caroline
had been undertaken by the orders of the JJritish Govern-
ment or by L 'itish authority. That he belie\ed was the
ground upon which Mr. Forsyth had acted as he had done.
He takes his objections, and denies the allegation of Mr.
Fox, that neither had he nor Her Majesty's Government
made any communication to him or the authorities of the
United States that the British Government had authorised
the destruction of the Carohne. He (Mr. Hume) therefore
hoped that no discussion would take place until all the pa-
pers connected with the matter were laid before the House.
He wished to know what the nature of those communica-
tions were with Mr. Stevenson and Her Majesty's Govern-
ment which had induced him to act as he had done.'*

Viscount Palmekston said that he ratlier thought his
hon. friend would find in that correspondence thyt instruc-
tions had been given by the American Government to Mr.
Stevenson to abstuin from pressing the utihject further —
{hear). With regard to the letter of Mr. Forsyth, he
(Viscount ralmerstoii) begged have to siy that the case

142

AppendU'.

stood thus: — In the case of the American citizens engaged
in invading Canada, the American Government disavowed
the acts of those citizens, and stated that the British autho-
rities might deal with them as they pleased — (hear, hear),
and that there were persons concerned in this vmdertaking
v/ho were not in any degree entitled to the protection of the
United States — {hear). But in the other case they treated
the affair of the Caroline as one to be considered as that of
the Government, and in fact assumed it to be altogether a
Government transaction, and not to be left upon the respon-
sibility of individuals. Until, therefore, the British Go-
vernment disowned those persons concerned in the destruc-
tion of the Caroline in the same manner as the American
Government had disavowed their citizens in the other case,
he conceived that the American Government had adopted
an international responsibility in the late detention of Mr.
M'^Leod, and could not therefore change their ground upon
this question — (hear^ hear).

Sir R. Peel wished to ask the noble lord a question
relating to a matter of fact. He believed that, in the ex-
pedition which had been formed for the destruction of the
Caroline, certain officers who held commissions in Her Ma-
jesty's army and navy were concerned in that affi 'r, and that
some of these officers had, in the execution of the orders
which were issued, received wounds. The question he
wished to ask was, whether or not Her Majesty's Govern-
ment had thought proper to award pensions to those officers
corresponding in amount with those which were usually
granted for wounds received in the regular service of Her
Majesty ?

Lord J. Russell said that he was not aware of any pen-
sions having been granted to those officers who were wound-
ed in the expedition against the Caroline.

Sir R. Pi: EL, in proposing another interrogatory, road
a passage from the speech which had been delivered by Her
Majesty on the opening of Parliament in 1839, which stated
that differences which had arisen had occasioned the retire-
ment of her minister from the court of Teheran, but Her

Appendia'.

113

Majesty hoped that a satisfactory adjustment of those diiFer-
ences would allow of the re-establishment of her relations
with Persia on their former footing of friendship.

Mr. O'CoNNELL begged pardon for interrupting the
right hon. baronet, but he thought they ought to leave all
other subjects until they had been satisfactorily informed
upon the subject of Mr. M'^Leod — (hear and cheers). Let
it be recollected that perhaps the life of a British subject
was at present at stake, and he was sorry that his hon. friend
(Mr. Hume) had taken such a course, because he (Mr.
OX^onnell) thought that upon this subject, at all events,
there ought to be a unanimity of feeling — {hear, hear).
He thought that every exertion should be made to have Mr.
M'^Leod saved, as he had acted under the command of the
officers of Her Majesty's Government, and it was in the
strict performance of his duty he had incurred the danger
with which he was threatened — {hear, hear). Whether
those orders had been right or wrong, this Government was
bound to give him every protection possible, {Cheers from
all parts of the House.)

Mr. S. O'Brien here rose to address the House, but
was interrupted by

The Speaker, who observed, that at present there was no
question before the Chair ; but he begged leave to remind
the hon. member that the right hon. baronet had risen to
ask a question, under which circumstances he considered
that the riffht hon. baronet the member for Tamworth was
then in possession of the Chair.

Sir R. Peel said he had been reading a passage from the
speech from the throne in 1 839, and he would now read a
passage from the royal speech at the opening of the session
in 1840: " I have not yet been enabled to establish my
** diplomatic relations with the court of Telieran, but com-
** munications which I have lately received from the Persian
" Government inspire me with the confident expectation
" that the differences which occasioned a suspension of those
** relations will soon be satisfactorily adjusted." He now
wished to ask the noble lord (Palmerston) whether those
differences had been satisfactorily adjusted, and wheth^v

144

Appendiv.

they had renewed their diplomatic relations with the court of
Persia ?

Viscount Palmerston said he was sorry to inform the
right hon. baronet that those diflferences had not yet been
finally or satisfactorily adjusted. The House was aware
that Her Majesty's Government had made certain demands
on the Persian Government for redress of certain wrongs,
which consisted in ill-treatment visited towards those con-
nected with the British mission, and certain British autho-
rities; and another ground of complaint was that Persia
still maintained possession of the city of Herat, which
belonged to the Indian territory (!) On the several points
of individual grievances, they had received explanations
and assurances, which if they did not amount altogether to
a literal fulfilment of the demands, yet appeared to them
such as that they might, without derogating from the
honour of the country, say they had received sufficient
satisfaction. Jt was on the territorial claims alone that
there lay any differences between the two Governments.
As to the missions, they would henceforward not be in any
way unduly interfered with.

Sir R. Peel wished to know whether there would be
any objection to lay before the House such information as
might enable them to form some judgment on the present
state of our relations with Persia ?

Lord Palmeuston said he had stated the substance of
the communications, and he had no objection to lay them
before the House.

Fkbruary 9.

Lord Stanley begged to ask the noble lord for a more
explicit and satisfactory answer, as to the question which he
(Lord Stanley) had put to the noble lord, which was,
whether any steps had been taken by Her Majesty's
Government, and if so, what steps were, for the liberation
of Mr. M"Leod ? The noble lord (Palmerston) had cer-
tainly answered him by saying, that they ' will take, and

* indeed have taken, such steps as they deemed necessary

* for the purpose.' These he (Lord Stanley) believed
were the actual words used by the noble lord, the Secretary

Appendiv,

145

rtof

for Foreign Affairs. He (Lord Stanley) did not, of course,
ask him further as to what the nature of those steps were, if
that noble lord thought proper to withhold that information,
but he did ask him whether he had taken such steps for
the protection and liberation of Mr. M^Leod (who had been
apprehended on the 12th of November, 1840), as would
be effectual in point of time in reference to the proceed-
ings then going on ? He distinctly wished to ask that
question.

Lord Palmerston — With respect to the other question,
what he had to state was this. A case of a somewhat
similar nature happened, or was about to happen, a year or
a year and a half ago; and upon that occasion instructions
were sent out to Mr. Fox, laying down what the Government
thought were sound principles in the emergency. At that
time it was rendered unnecessary to act upon the instruction ;
hut the case having now actually occurred^ Mr. Fox, with-
out waiting for further instructions from home, acted upon
the forme** instructions, and made the demand upon the
American ^i rnment for the liberation of Mr. M^'Leod.
He then r ./ *' 'd the whole case to the Government, but
from various causes that communication had been much
longer on its passage than usual, and it was only a few days
ago that he had received the final portion of what had taken
place between Mr. Fox and the American Government ; it
was, therefore, only that day that an opportunity had pre-
sented itself for sending out final and conclusive instructions
— they were then ready prepared, and were on the point of
being sent off; but what the nature of those instructions
was, neither the noble lord nor the House would then expect
him to say. Mr. Fox had founded his remonstrances with
the American Government upon instructions sent him by
the Government respecting a case of a similar nature,
which it was feared would have occurred.

Lord Stanley — The noble lord had not as yet an-
swered his question. He (Lord Stanley) wislied to ask the
noble lord again, whether subsequent to the information
which had been received of the apprehension of Mr. M^Leod,
he, or any member of Her Majesty's Government, had

140

Appendix.

taken any immediate steps on the subject, and had forwarded
any communication to their minister at Washington ?

Lord Palmkrston — Yes; and the instructions which
were given tvere precisely to the same e/ftct as those which
were stated as having been given in the former case. It
was not until Saturday last that the Government had
received from Mr. Fox the last communication respecting
the result of his correspondence with the authorities of the
United States.

Mr. Hume said he wished to put a question to the noble
lord. He (Mr. Hume) held in his hand the order which
had been issued in 1837 by the Commander-in-Chief in
America, which announced his Excellency"'s great satis-
faction at the destruction of the Caroline, which the order
stated was effected in a manner highly creditable to those
engaged in that expedition ; that the result had met with
his Excellency's unqualified approbation, and he would
think it his duty to make known the whole affair to Her
Majesty's Government. He (Mr. Hume) wished now to
ask the question — whether there ever had been a communi-
cation to Her Majesty's Government upon the subject, and
whether they had ever signified their approbation of that
act ?

Lord J. Russell acknowledged that such a communi-
cation had been made by order of the Lieutenant-Governor,
who was then Sir Francis Head, who had entirely approved
of what had been done, and had informed Her Majesty's
Government of all the circumstances connected with it.
He (Lord J. llussell) believed the purport of the hon.
gentleman's question to be, whether the Lieutenant-Governor
had represented the view which Her Majesty's Government
had taken of the case. He thought that his noble friend
the Secretary for Foreign Affairs had already answered that
question. (Cheers.)

Mr. Hume again attempted to speak, but was antici-
pated by

Mr. T. DuNCOMBE, who begged to ask a question of
the noble lord the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, which he
thought was highly necessary to complete the discussion

warded

which

\se. It

it had

Meeting

of the

|e noble

which

hief in

satis-

e order

o those

et with

would

to Her

now to

mmuni-

ect, and

of that

mmuni-
)vernor,
3proved
Iajesty''g
A^ith it.
le hon.
overnor
rnment
: friend
•ed that

antici-

tion of
lich he
cussion

Appendix.

117

u|)on this subject. He wished to ask the Foreign Secretary
whether the Government had adopted the act of Captain
Drew and the capture of the Caroline as their own, and
thereby, of course, approved of same ?

Lord Palmerston — If the hon. member meant to ask
whether Her Majesty's Government did or did not consider
the capture of the Caroline a just proceeding, he (the noble
lord) would say that undoubtedly Her Majesty's Govern-
ment did consider it a proceeding perfectly justified ; for it
was one deemed necessary for the defence of Her Majesty's
rights — {immense cheering from the ministerialists, echoed
back by the opposition side of the House).

Mr. Hume then asked whether the noble lord or Her
Majesty's Government had ever signified that opinion to the
Government of the United States.

Lord Palmerston said that such opinion was com-
municated both to Mr. Stevenson, the minister of the
United States here, and also to the American Government,
through Mr. Fox.

March 5th.

Mr. S. O'Brien said, that before the Speaker left the
Chair he was anxious to say a few words on the state of our
relations with the United States of America. Two circum-
stances were stated in the newspapers to have occurred
recently, which if true deserved the immediate notice of the
House of Commons. The first was that a true bill had
been found in the United States against Colonel M'^Leod
for murder and arson, on the allegation that he had been
present at a transaction ordered by the colonial authorities
of Canada ; and the second was that the Legislature of
Maine had recently passed these two resolutions : — " That
" the Governor be authorised to take immediate measures
** to remove the troops of the Queen of Great Britain now
" quartered on the territory called * disputed' by the
" British Government ; that the resources of this state be,
" and they are hereby, placed at the dis[)osal of the

Governor, and the specific sum of 400,000 dollars be

148

Appcndlv.

" and the

hereby

ited out of

money

((

carrying

same nereuy is, appropru
in the Treasury, for the purpose ol
" resolutions into effect." He did not know what
authority there was for believing these resolutions to be
genuine; but if they were authentic, they amounted to
nothing else than a declaration of war against Great Britain.
(Hear, hear.) He was more adverse to war than any
individual in that House. He looked upon a war with the
United States as one more to be deprecated than any other,
inasmuch as it must be of a fratricidal character. (Hear,
hear.) He likewise saw that the vast commercial interests
of this country must be exposed to disaster by its continu-
ance. Still, if war did take place on the present occasion,
it would not be a war of our seeking. Besides, we should
lose our high character as a nation, if we did not defend our
colonies, when attacked ; neither could we claim their alle-
giance, if we did not give them protection, when they were
acting under our authority. (Hear, hear.) He had seen
a great exertion of our vigour under the auspices of the
noble Secretary for Foreign Affairs in another part of the
globe, where the exercise of our vigour was of a more
ambiguous character than it would be on the present
occasion ; and he trusted that the noble lord would on this
emergency display the same vigour which he had displayed
elsewhere. His movements, however, were so secret; and
he did not blame the noble lord for it ; that the House had
no opportunity of forming an opinion upon the efficacy of
his directions. (Hear, hear, from the Opposition benches^
It was, however, his duty, as a member of Parliament, to
say that our interests would be better secured than they
were at present in case we had a strong fleet in front of the
harbours of the United States, and a strong army on the
frontiers of British America. He left it to the Government
to say whether the naval and military estimates were on a
sufficiently large scale to meet every contingency that might
arise in that quarter of the globe. (Hear, hear.) If they
were not. Ministers would be wanting in their duty if they
did not come down to Parliament and ask for such sums as

Appcmllv.

140

money
he said
what
Is to be
nted to
Britain,
an any
ith the
y other,
{Hear,
nterests
con tin u-
)ccasioii,
; should
fend our
eir alle-
ley were
lad seen
5 of tlie
•t of the
a more
present
I on this
isplayed
et; and
mse had
Rcacy of
enches.)
iuent, to
lan they
t of the
on the
jrnment
ere on a
t might
If they
if they
sums as

wouhl enable them to meet every contingency. {Hear,
hear.) He was sure that the House would willingly com-
ply with any demand which would enable them to secure
the honour and interests of the country. {Hear, hear.)

Mr. EwART did not see the necessity for anticipating dif-
ferences between the two countries. He believed that the
great body of Americans were inclined to peace with this
country ; they knew their own interest too well, he believed,
to wish for war. He trusted that the unhappy discord
which it appeared existed at present might pass off without
evil results ; and he was confident that if it did, not only
the interests, but the w'shf )f both nations would be
satisfied.

Mr. Hume hoped that the noble lord would be able to
satisfy the House and the country by some statement on this
subject {cries of * Oh /') and remove any prejudice which
might be occasioned by silence. He (Mr. Hume) was of
opinion that there was no ground for immediate interference.
He thought that nothing had taken place in America but
what had been done under the civil law. It was manifestly
too soon to appeal to war when they were not informed that
any thing had taken place which was not in accordance witli
the laws of those countries in which they had taken place.

The House then went into Committee.

Sir R. Peel — But, when he looked to the United States,
and beheld the state of feeling which existed there — when
he viewed their proceedings against, and continued deten-
tentionof, Mr. M'^Leod — when he heard from the noble lord
that a representation had been made to the American
Government that the destruction of the Caroline must be
regarded as the act of the English Government — when he
understood that orders had been sent out to demand
peremptorily the liberation of Mr. M/'Leod — and when he
thought on what had since occurred, without, as had been
observed by the noble lord, entering into recriminations in
reply to observations made in the Congress of America, that
great country which he always treated with the most sincere
respect, and an interruption in our amicable relations with

1.50

Appcndi.v.

which he should most deeply deplore; when he thought on
all these circumstances, he could not think that a sound
policy which would seek to purchase a hollow truce by
unjust concessions. {Hear, hear.) He hoped that we
should never forget the claims which th^ North American
provinces, who had shown themselves so faithful to British
connexion, had on this country ; and whilst he would sin-
cerely deplore a war with any country, and more especially
with that country, which had so many clair^s on us, sharing
the same descent and speaking the same language, yet, if
the interests of his country required the vindication of
British honour in resistance against wrong, all his desires
for peace would vanish before his determination to stand by
the cause of his country. (The right hon. baronet, who
towards the conclusion of his sentences occasionally dropped
his voice to so low a pitch as to be nearly inaudible in the
gallery, resumed his seat amidst great cheering.)

[addition to third e: tion.]

April &h.

Lord Palmerston observed that his honorable friend
the Member for Kilkenny, had a notice on the paper for
copies of the correspondence that had taken place between
the Agents of the United States and Her Majesty's Govern-
ment respecting the destruction of the steam-boat Caroline.
He (Lord Palmerston) had to request that his honorable
friend would not now press the question on the consideration
of the House — {hear, hear). He (Lord Palmerston) trusted
that, on the part of both Governments, there was an anxious
desire that the negociations respecting this matter should be
brought to an amicable and satisfactory termination — {hear,
hear). But still there were points connected with it which
had excited a very strong feeling, both in this country and
on the other side of the Atlantic ; he would therefore put

Ajtjnndii'.

151

ught on
a. sound
ruce by
that we
.merican

British
uld sin-
specially
sharing
, yet, if
ation of

desires

tand by

let, who

dropped

le in the

it to the consideration of his honorable friend, whether it
would not be advisable at present, while the question was
still the subject of communication between the two Govern-
ments, to abstain from introducing any motion which must
necessarily be followed by a discussion on details that
would most likely have the effect of defeating the wish,
not only of his honorable friend, but also the desire of the
English Government and the Government of ihe United
States — (heaVf hear). He hoped, therefore, his honorable
friend would agree to postpone his motion until a later
period of the session, before which time, probably, the ne-
gociations now pending between the two countries would
have come to an issue — (hear, hear).

Mr. Hume had no objection to acquiesce; he would,
therefore, postpone his motion till after the recess, by which
time he trusted the noble lord would be able to communi-
cate to the House information upon this painful subject, of
a conclusive and satisfaciory description — {hear, hear).

'I &h.

e friend
a per for
between
Govern-
'aroline.
morable
leration
trusted
anxious
ould be
-{hear,
t which
Wy and
►re put

No. VI.
BOUNDARY QUESTION.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

July 13M, 1840.

Sir R. Peel said that early in the present Session of
Parliament, he had called the attention of the noble lord
opposite, to the necessity of laying before the House certain
papers then in the hands of Government, with respect to the
Boundary Question. On that occasion he had received a
positive assurance from the noble lord that they should be
laid on the table of the House immediately before the holi-
days.

Viscount Palmerston admitted that he must take
upon himself all the responsibility of the delay. The

1 v>

Apjh'nd'i.r.

report was not yet ready*^ and lie was anxious that the
report should be presented to the House at the same time as
the papers to which the right hon. baronet referred.

Sir R. Peel asks if they will be given in extenso ? The
answer is yes ; and that fresh surveyors have been sent
for part of the line which had not been well surveyed.

Another question is then put on quite another subject
to Lord J. Russell, after which I^ord Pahnerston again
rose, and said that he thougiit it might be satisfac-
tory to the House to know that Her Majt ty's Govern-
ment had sent out a proposition in answer to one whi(rh had
proceeded from the United States, and which had reached
this country in the course of last year. The proposition
thus transmitted was accompanieu by the draft of a Con-
vention, which he had no doubt would have the effect
of bringing the whale questio?i to a final and satisfactory
issue.

Sir R. Peel inquired if the terms of the proposition to
which the noble lord referred, took for its basis any other
proposition which had proceeded from the United States, or
was altogether a new proposition, which the American
Government were at hberty to accept or reject as they
thought proper .?

Lord Palmeiiston said that the proposition sent out
was founded on that received last year from the American
Government.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

February 19^A, 184L

Sir R. Peel wished to ask the noble lord what the
precise state of our relations with the Government of the
United States of America were, in regard to the dispute
relative to the north east boundary. He did not wish, of

* The Report is dated April 18th. It is communicated to the
United States' Government by a despatch dated " Foreign
Office, 3rd Jime !" The day after this debate, the London press
announced, as news from "Washington, the arrival there of the
printed Report ! — See Parallel case in " Statements regarding
the Sulphur Monopoly."

hat the
time as

? The
een sent
fed.

subject
:)n again
satisfac-
jrovern-
hioh had
reached
oj)osition
f a Con-
the effect
isfactory

)sition to
any other
States, or
American
L as they

sent out
American

, 1841.

what the
int of the
e dispute
t wish, of

ited to the

" Foreign

ndon press

lere of the

regarding

Apinndlv.

1 :>:$

course, * to provoke discussion, or to ask prematurely* for
information/ A report had recently been published, by two
connnissioners who had been appointed by the Government
of this country to inquire into the subject relative to the
boundary line between the state of Maine and the j)rovince
of New Brunswick, and he wished to know whether, since
that time, any steps had been taken in concert, by the Go-
vernment of the United St.atcs and the British Government,
to put an end to that long litigated question.

Viscount Palmers ION said the British Government
bad, last year, proposed to the Governn>ent of the United
States a draft of a convention for the settlement of the
Boundary question, another draft having been proposed
the year previous. That draft was not accepted by the
Government of the United States, but a counter-draft
was returned. The British Government could not agree to
the counter-draft; but they last year made a proposal to
the Government of the United States upon the subject of
the Boundary, which the United States Government re-
fused to agree to. The United States Government, how-
ever, sent a counter-proposal, but to that proposal the Bri-
tish Government could not consent. He was not prepared
to enter further on the subject. The survey to which the
right hon. gentleman had alluded, was totally independent
of the negociation. In ordkr to save time, and to gain
all the information possible on the geographical part of the
question^ the British Government sent out a commission for
exploring the disputed territory. It was not a joint com-
mission between the two Governments, and the statements
in the report were to be considered as only ev-parte'f, the
Government of the United States being in no way bound
by them. The United States Government had also sent
a commission, with a view to obtain information, still he
believed no material progress has yet been made by the
commissioners.

Sir R. PsEL was then to understand that the commission

* N.B. — Ton years since these negociations commenced,
t The minister declares his own case ex-j)arle^ and that after
saying the commission was sent to examine the frcograpby.

1 54

Appcniliv.

which had hi'on sent from this country, was sent without
any concert with the Government of the United States, and
that that Government was in no way bound by the report
which had !)een made. He was to understand that there
had been no joint proceedinfj^s between the two govern-
ments — no concert — and in point of fact, that all the mea-
sures which had been j)roposed by either Government had
been recij)rocally rejected ?

Viscount Palm kuston — not exactly (!) rejected. The two
governments liad agreed to a form of commission, but not to
all the details by which it was to be carried out. When
Colonel Mudge and Mr. Featherstonhaugh were appointed
connnissioners tlie American Government was informed of
the fact, and those gentlemen had received from that Go-
vernment every facility for obtaining information which
could be given by a friendly state.

Sir R. Pkel wished to know whether the United States
Government had agreed to tlie commission to which the
noble lord alluded ? Would the commission proposed have
power to decide the question at issue; and if it could, had
the Government of the United States agreed to that prin-
ciple ?

Viscount Palmerston said the Government of the
United States had first proposed a commission of one cha-
racter and to that commission the British Government had
agreed, but projjosed certain modifications in the arrange-
ments The American Government then proposed a com-
mission of a different character, which connected with it an
arrangement for arbitration in case disputes should arise.
The first commission contained no arrangement for arbi-
tration. The British Government had agreed to that pro-
posal. The Government of the United States, however,
changed their minds, and said, they wished to have a com-
mission coupled with an arrangement for arbitration. He
would not enter upon the points still unsettled, but he
might say that the difference existing between the two go-
vernments was not relative to the principle, but to the mode
in wiiich the commission should be carried out.

The conversation here dropped.

.\l)j/i ndi.i .

l.V)

Ithout

S and

•c'port

there

hvcni-

t 11 K'U-

it had

■?

No. VII.

Negov'iat'ion.s'^ respecting the Boundary suLseqncnfJy tn
hrviiking the Award, as given in Papers marked I. t^ //.

Second series of nej^ociations open 10th .Faiuiary, 1S3H,
hy a declaration from the liritish to the American Govern-
ment that both governments were as free as before the
reference had been made to the Kin^ of Holland.

The United States Government had previously proposed
to that of England a joint commission, to survey the terri-
tory, and a proposition for the appointment of an umpire.

January lOM, 18B8. — The British Representative com-
municates the assent of the British Government to the
princi})le of a joint commission and to the a})pointment of
an umpire; but proposing that the State of M iinc should
be an ASSENTING party to any ahrangkment.

The American Government replies that it is impracJ-
cable to ascertain what are the real views and intentions of
Her Majesty's Government.

Fifteen months elapse.

April Gth, 1839. — A draft of a convention-f- is transniitt* d
to Washington by Lord Palmerston. In this convention
there is ?io mention made of an umpire.

May \Oth. — It is communicated to the United States
Government and rejected on the 15th by the President.

July 29th, 1839. — A counter-draft is sent by the United
States, containing an arrangement for arbitration, with a
letter urging the necessity of the adoption of such measures
as might, " under some form, result in a fi-al settlement.'"

July SOth, 1839.— Mr. Fox informs tlr t-nited States'
Government that Commissioners had been sent from
England to survey the frontier before the pending nego-
ciations for the establishment of a liew joint commission
could be terminated.

February I9th, 1840. — Lord Palmerston communicates

* Tho Report and Correspondence are published in two parts,
marked Part I., Part II. Who would suspect that there were
other papers relating to the Boundary ? These are marked A and f i.

t Referring in the prcaiuhle to the projjosals made hy tlie
United States in the months of April, May, and June, 1833.

156

Appcndir.

.to tlie United States' Government that Her Majesty's Minis-
ters will send an answer to the last communication of the
American Government when the report of the Commis-
sioners is prepared.

June 3rd, 1840. — Lord Palmerston gives his consent to
the principles of the United States draft for a convention,
communicated on the ^9th of July, 1839 ; but rejects it on
account of some of the details; promises that an amended draft
will be sent out to the United States by an early opportunity.

This reply was kept back, on the plea that the report
of the Connnissioners was not ready. That report is dated
16th April. The answer, which is not an anawer, 3rd
June, 1840.

On the 27th April, 1838, Mr. Fox is invited to a confer-
ence by Mr. Forsyth, Mr. Fox has no powers to ne^'ociate,
but transmits the invitation he receives to Lord Palmerston.

SOth March, 1839. — Mr. Stevenson reproaches Lord
Palmerston for his not having sent instructions, as he had
repeatedly given assurances that he would, to Mr. Fox, con-
veying powers to negociate, and offering, on behalf of his
Government, to remove the negociation from Washington
to London.

On the 16th May, 1839, Mr. Fox acknowledges having
received a despatch, 22nd March, giving him powers
to negociate for the arrangement of any dispute between
the two Governments.

Srd April, 1839. — Lord Palmerston refuses to remove
the negociations from Washington to I^ondon.

\Gth May, 1839. — Mr. Fox transmits to Mr. Forsyth a
draft of a convention, and states that he has powers to sign it,
should it be accepted by the Government of the United States.

2dth July, 1839. — He receives a counter-draft from Mr.
Forsyth, which he transmits on the 4th August to London,
returning no answer to the United States'* Government, and
making no offer to negociate.

Every session has the Minister expressed his expectation
of an approaching settlement, and has the House of
Commons concurred in that expectation, and of course not
bi'iiig able to see beforel^and what was coming, how can
tiiey understand it after it has occurred ?

Vlinis-
[)f the
mtnis-

cnt to

ntion,

s it on

1 draft

unity.

report

I dated

jr, 3rd

confer-
'ociate,
erston.
Lord
he had
Dx, con-
■ of his
bington

having

powers

jetween

remove

rsyth a
I sign it,
1 States,
oni Mr.
^ondon,
^nt, and

ectation
3use of
iirse not
low can

Appendix.

157

Effect of the Publication of the Report. — Unanimous
Resolution of the Legislature of Massachusetts, — That
the late Report made to the Government of Great Britain,
by their commissioners of survey, Messrs. Featherstonhaugh
and Mudge, though not to be regarded as having yet re-
ceived the sanction of that government, is calculated to
produce, io every part of the United States where it is
examined, a state of the public mind highly unfavourable
to that conciliatory temper, and to that mutual confidence
in the good intentions of each other, without which it is
hopeless to expect a satisfactory result to controversies
between nations.

No. VIII.

See Preface, p. xvi.
Ewtract from " The Crisis.""

While these pages were passing through the press, I
have learned the details of proposals made to France by
Russia in 1830, and which concluded in an arrangement,
by which France was to suffer Russia to add Constantinople
to her dominions, and consented to concur in the measures
vdiich Russia might take to bring about this result,

Russia was not in any manner to proceed by violent
means, but as the Turkish empire was falling to pieces
by itself Russia was only to assist this dissolution, and
in a pacific manner, that is to say, by a succession of
TREATIES. Prussia and Austria were to be brought to take
part in this arrangement. Russia was to protect France
against the maritime power of England. The possession
of the Rhenish provinces, Antwerp and Belgium, were
guaranteed to her; Holland was however to keep
Luxembourg ; Prussia would be offered a compensation
in Hanover, and in the whole or in a part of Saxony ;
Austria would receive for her share the Turkish provinces
on the Danube.

This negociation was revealed by Prince Polignac him-
self during the revolution of July, to protw that he had
served the interests of France. It is known that certain
documents, relative to this transaction, were at the time
charitably thrown in the lire by the distinguished his-

158

Append i. I'.

torian of Frcncli diplomacy, as he judged that tliey might
have brouglit Prince Polignac to the block.

To prepare for the abandonment by the British Cabinet
of the alliance with France, Russia invited from the pre-
ceding administration, that of M. Mole, propositions simi-
lar to those above detailed. These having at length
assumed a definite shape, M. Brunow was sent ^o London,
armed with those proofs of the treachery of France. Thus
was Lord Palmerston able to do what he has done*.

It would appear, however, that some of the colleagues of
Lord Palmerston are beginning to be alarmed, and think
of arresting him in his career. But what can they do ?
Dismiss him ? The treaty would remain and would weigh
upon England (mly a heavier burden in the hands of the
minister who would succeed him, in the midst of compli-
cations which he would be unable to unravel or to com-
])rehend, and having Lord Palmerston in opposition.
Safety is only to be found in the proof that the
hand which has signed this deed is a guilty hand.
It is the only means which will permit the light of day
to break in on this infamous series of wholesale treason.
The danger would be now immensely increased by the
accession to power of unconscious agents. The system can
be destroyed only in the criminal. — (page 72.)

(And what matters the exposure of such things after-
wards ? The point is gained, men do not go back to
examine how and why they have come to atlopt a decision ;
and the very suspicion of deception leads them to use
every means to stifle inquiry).

* The British and French ambassadors at St. Peteisbiirgh
have been alternatoly treated with marked attention by the
l']niperor, or with marked coldness. On ono occasion, Lord
Durham invited from the Emperor a more courteous demeanour
for the French aud)assador. On his return to England he used
these words : " My embassy has been important and successful,
if it had hatl no other result than this, that it has proved to
Russia that her <'tforts to break tlie English and French alli-
ance were vain." \ ... .. ..>•

*i:.

• ' *

. nv. ,,^

Apj)i'ni!i.v.

159

Imigbt

ibinet

le pre-

simi-

length

)ndon,

Thus

ues of

think

?y do?

weigh

of the

conipli-

to com-

>osition.

AT THE
r HAND.

of day

treason.

by the

tern can

;s after-
hack to
fecision ;
I to use

lejsbiirgh
by the
m, Lord
jiueaiiour
I he uslmI
ucccssful.
I roved to
!uch alii-

11 «

• No. IX.
From the " Timea'''' of May Itk, 1841.

DESTRUCTION OF THE CAROLINE.

Mr. Hume moved for a copy of the correspondence be-
tween the Legation of the United States in London and the
Secretary of State for the Foreign Department in relation to
the destruction of the steam-boat Caroline ; also a copy of
the correspondence between Mr. Fox, the British Minister
at Washington, and the Secretary of the United States,
in relation to the destruction of the steam-boat Caroline :
also a copy of the correspondence between the Lieutenant-
Governors of Upper Canada and the Governor-General of
the Canadas, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in
relation to the desuuction of the steam-boat Caroline. He
would not enter into the merits of the question, but he cer-
tainly was of opinion that the correspondence which had
been publicly laid before Congress ought to be likewise be-
fore that House, and that if it had been ])roduced at an
earlier period, it would have tended to prevent much of the
excitement which prevailed on both siiles of the Atlantic.

Lord J. Russell said, that motions relating to matters
still in course of negociation with foreign governments were
so entirely unusual, and so much inconvenience to the pub-
lic service would attend the production of the correspondence
now moved for, that he was sure the House would not sup-
port the hon. member for Kilkenny, who, in fact, required
the production of the most confidential porticm of the corres-
pondence between the Governors of Upper and Lower Ca-
nada and the Secretary of State. He did not think the hon,
meinber was precisely aware how the matter stood. The
Government of the United States had made a complaint of
the conduct of certain individuals and officers belonging
to Upper Canada, who were said to have taken a part in
the destruction of the steam-boat Caroline. The result of
that complaint was the transmission of a great quantity of
correspondence, and various statements made by the Go-
vernor of Upper Canada and several iiulividuals who were

160

Appendiv.

t'oncernod in tlio transaction. The American Government
sent counter-statements, 6w^ they did not persist in asking
for a jinnl answer to their demand ; the effect of ivhich
rms, that the acts of the British Government ceased to he
matter of discussion between the two Governments. It was
not for the British Government to follow up these negocia-
tions by saying to the American Government that they must
desist from their former demands ; or for the United States
to say that they had been in the wrong in making such de-
mand. All that could be expected was, that the United
States Government should have allowed the subject to drop ;
and he was convinced that it would have dropped, and no
longer have been discussed between the two Governments,
had it not been for the unfortunate arrest of Mr. M^Leod,
which completely revived it and the discussions regarding
it. Witli regard to the correspondence now moved for, he
could only say that the production of it would be inconve-
nient to the public service, would tend to embarrass the
negociations which were now going on between the two
countries in a most amicable spirit, and miglit have the
efl'ect of weakening the relations of two mighty and intel-
ligent nations. (Hear hear.)

Mr. HuMK said, that if the papers he moved for were
laid npim the table, they would prove the reverse of
what the noble lord the Secretary ffr the Foreign Depart-
ment had stated. That noble lord had asserted that the
American Government had not persisted in demanding an
answer to their communication of the 22nd of May, 1838,
whereas Mr. Forsyth distinctly stated, in the correspondence
which was befo.e the world, that Mr. Stevenson would not
be instructed to press for an answer, because Mr. Fox had
told him that he expected an imswer direct from this coun-
try in a few days What he (Mr. Hume) wanted was, to
have on the table of the House those papers which would
Citnvince the House tliat the noble lord the Secretary ot
State for Foreign Affairs, who, on a former occasion, stated
that he had transniUled an answer to the American Go-
ri'inmcnt, never had Iransinitted

'.'/

hour. '\ he ri;'ht hon. baronet the nicmher for 'I'amworth,

Appendix.

161

stated some time ago, that there must be a limit to the
patience of the House regarding the refusal of public docu-
ments, and, in his (Mr. Hume's) opinion, that time had now
arrived. Had the documents connected with the affairs of
Syria been produced when he (Mr. Hume) had moved for
them, he was convinced that the affairs of the East would
have been settled much sooner, and much of the loss which
the country had since sustained would have been avoided.
He only wanted, in the present case, the printed correspon-
dence ; he wanted no secrets, and he hoped the House would
support him in endeavouring to compel the noble lord to
produce it. Had he been furnished with it sooner, the
question would have been forced upon the attention of the
Government, and might before this have been completely
settled.

Lord J. Russell said, that the production of the cor-
respondence in question would not enable the hon. gentleman
to attain the object he had in view. The American Go-
vernment had asked for redress for the burning of the
Caroline, and to that demand Her Majesty's Government
had deliberately, and not through any neglect, thought it
proper not to give a formal and final answer. But his
noble friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs had
since informed the American Minister at the Court of Lon-
don that the British Government had justified the destruc-
tion of the Caroline; upon which the American Minister
made a communication to his Government, which comnui-
nication had not yet transpired. His noble friend (Lord
Palmerston) was therefore perfectly justified in the statement
iic had made on a former occasion.

Mr. Hume said, that since the 9>9>nd of May, 1838, when
the American Government sent a commurication to Lord
Palmerston, requesting satisfaction, up to the present, or, at
least, up to the period at which he (Mr. Hume) last bitro-
duced the question to the notice of the House, no answer
had been given, verbally or by letter, to that coninuinica-
tion ; so that the House had been entirely misled and
abused by the allegation of the noble lord, that an answer
had been given.

Sir U. Peel understood tlie noble lord the Secretary for

162

Appendix.

the Colonies to meet the motion of the hon. member by de-
claring that negociations connected with the subject were
now pending, that they were conducted on both sides in an
amicable spirit — (Hear, hear,) and that the production of
the correspondence moved for would be prejudicial to the
public service. Now, he confessed that a statement of that
kind, coming from a Minister of the Crown, was, with him
(Sir R. Peel), conclusive. — (Heai\hear.) Without offering
any opinion upon the unfortunate state of ignorance they
were in at present respecting our foreign relations, he must
say that it would be most unwise to attempt to force a
Minister of the Crown to produce a correspondence after
such a declaration as the noble lord had made. He wished
to ask the noble lord what position Mr. M'^Leod himself was
in at present. He understood that the British Government
had avowed the destruction of the Caroline as a public act,
and had called on the Government of the United States to
release Mr. M'^Leod. In what position did the matter now
stand ? Would he be released, or would the law be allowed
to take its course ?

Lord J. llussELL said that the statement made in answer
to Mr. Fox was, that the Attorney-General of the United
States Government had proceeded to the place at which the
trial of Mr. M*^Leod was expected to take place, and would
there act according to certain instructions he had received
from the American Government, which he (Lord J. Russell)
did not deem it necessary to state to the House ; that the
Attorney-General had not himself taken any steps in the
matter ; but that the counsel for Mr. M*^Leod having stated
that one of his defences was that the act had been autho-
rized by the British Government, applied to have the case
removed to a federal court, and that that application was
granted. He (Lord J. Russell) trusted that the American
Governnien'. would, when in a federal court, do that which
he was told they could only do in a federal court. •.

Mr. W. S. CBrien hoped the noble lord would not re-
fuse those documents which had already appeared in the
American papers. Surely no inconvenience would arise
from their production.

Sir R. VvA-A. hoped the noble lord would refuse them, as

Appendic.

163

lie thought that tlie application for or granting of just so
much inforviation as another country possessed would be
very derogatory to the British Parliament. The statements
already published were of an ex parte character, and might
give a most unfavour.able view of the case as regarded this
country. So that by agreeing to the suggestion of the hon.
gentleman, they might be giving their sanction to these un-
favourable and perhaps unjust statements. — (Hear, hear.)

Sir D. L. Evans could not understand the object of
pressing for papers which the hon. gentleman had already
read, after the declaration of the noble lord.

Mr. P. Howard thought it indelicate, just as both coun-
tries were deploring the loss of the late President of the
United States, and just as a new governor had assumed the
office, to press such a motion as this on the attention of
that House.

Mr. T. DuNCOMBE observed, that according to the right
hon. baronet the member for Tamworth this country should
not possess the same information as was possessed by other
countries. They only asked for the papers relating to the
arrest of Mr. M*^Leod, and why the British Parliament
sliould not have them as well as the Congress of the United
States he was at a loss to conceive. Whether the informa-
tion were withheld or not, lie wished to know if the Go-
vernment intended to allow the trial of Mr. M<^Leod to be
j)roceeded with ; because the feeling throughout the country
was this — that our national honour was compromised by
the detention in prison of Mr. M^Leod. The guilt or
innocence of Mr. M'^Leod had nothing to do with the
question, as it was notorious that the Government would
escape from the dilemma by the proof of Mr. M^Leod
not having been present at the destruction of the Caro-
line. But Mr. M"'Leod had been arrested and detained
in prison, and if they had a right to detain him, they
hati a right to try him, and if to try him to execute
him, should he be found guilty. What he wanted to know
therefore was, whether, in the event of such a verdict, the
(government intended to allow Mr. M'^Leod to be executed.?
Because, if not, they sliould have stopped the matter in

164

Appendix.

limine, and not allowed him to be thrown into prison.
Suppose Captain Drew was travelling in the United States,
was arrested, tried, and found guilty, would it be borne that
an English officer was so to be treated by a foreign coun-
try for obeying the orders of his own ? He asked, there-
fore, did the Government mean to allow Mr. M'^Leod'*s trial
to proceed? He had been already imprisoned for six
months, and the people of England had a right to know why.

Sir R. Peel observed, Ma^ the question was not whether
Mr. M'^Leod — respecting whose arrest and imprisonment
he (Sir R. Peel) would give no opinion whatever — ought
to be released or not, but whether these papers, the pro-
duction of which the noble lord had told them would be
prejudicial to the negociations which were now being carried
on in an amicable spirit between the two countries, should
be laid upon the table of the House. — (Hear, hear.)

Strangers then withdrew for a division, but none took
place, and the motion was negatived.

No. X.

(Extract.)

ME. FOX TO MB. WEBSTEE.

Washington, March 1% 184!l.

The undersigned is now instructed again to demand from
the Government of the United States, formally, in the
name of the British Government, the immediate release of
Mr. Alexander M^Leod.

The grounds upon which the British Government make
this demand upon the Government of the United States are
these : that the transaction on account of which Mr. Alexan-
der M^^^Leod has been arrested, and is to be put upon his
trial, was a transaction of a public character, planned and
executed by persons duly empowered by Her Majesty's colo-
nial authorities to take any steps and to do any acts which
might be necessary for the defence of Her Majesty's territo-
ries, and for the protection of Her Majesty's subjects ; and

•ison.

ftates,

that

took

Appendi.p.

165

that, consequently, those subjects of Her Majesty who en-
gaged in that transaction were performing an act of public
duty for which they cannot be made personally and indivi-
dually answerable to the laws and tribunals of any foreign
country.

The transaction in question may have been, as Her Ma-
jesty's Government are of opinion that it was, a justifiable
employment of force for the purpose of defending the Bri-
tish territory from the unprovoked attack of a band of
British rebels and American pirates, who, having been per-
mitted to arm and organize themselves within the territory
of the United States, had actually invaded and occupied a
portion of the territory of Her Majesty ; or it may have
been, as alleged by Mr. Forsyth, in his note to the under-
signed of the 26th of December, " a most unjustifiable in-
" vasion, in time of peace, of the territory of the United
" States.*" But this is a question especially of a political
and international kind, which can be discussed and settled
only between the two Governments, and which the courts
of justice of the State of New York cannot, by possibility,
have any means of judging or any right of deciding.

(Extract.)

MR. WEBSTEE TO MR. FOX.

Washington, April 24, 1841.

The undersigned has now to signify to Mr. Fox that the
Government of the United States has not changed the
opinion which it has heretofore expressed to Her Majesty's
Government of the character of the act of destroying the
« Caroline."

It does not think that that transaction can be justified by
any reasonable application or construction of the right of
self-defence under the laws of nations. It is admitted that
a just right of self-defence attaches always to nations as well
as to individuals, and is equally necessary for the preserva-
tion of both. But the extent of this right is a question to
be judged of by the circumstances of each particular case.

160

Appcndiv

and when its allcpjed oxcrciso has led to the counHisslon of
liostile acts within the territory of a power at peace, nothin/jp
less than a clear and absolute necessity can afford ground of
justification. Not having up to this time been nuule ac-
quainted with the views and reasons at length, which have
led Her Majesty''s Govornnient to think tlie destruction of
the " Caroline"" justifiable as an act of self-defence, the un-
dersigned, earnestly renewing the remonstrance of this Go-
vernment against the transaction, abstains for the present,
from any extended discussion of the question. But it is
deemed proper, nevertheless, not to omit to take some notice
of the general grounds of justification stated by Her Ma-
jesty''s Government on their instruction to Mr, Fox.

Her Majesty's Government have instructed Mr. Fox to
say, that tliey are of opinion that the transaction which ter-
minated in the destruction of the '' Caroline,"" was a justi-
fiable employment of force, for the purpose of defending the
British Territory from the unprovoked attack of a band of
British rebels and American pirates, who, having been " per-
mitted"" to arm and organize tliemselves within the territory
of the United States, had actually invaded a j)ortion of the
territory of Her Majesty.

The President cannot suppose tliut Her Majesty's Go-
vernment, by the use of these terms, meant to be under-
stood as intimating that these acts, violating the laws of the
United States and disturbing the peace of the British Ter-
ritories, were done under any degree of countenance from
this Government, or were regarded by it with indifference;
or, that under the circumstances of the case, they could have
been prevented by the ordinary course of proceeding. Al-
though he regrets that, by using the term « permitted,'' a
possible inference of that kind mioht be raised, yet such an
inference, the President is willing to believe, would be quite
unjust to the intentions of the British Government.

That, on a line of frontier, such as separates the United
States from Her Britannic Majesty's North American Pro-
vince.;, a line long enough to divide the whole of Europe into
halves, irregularities, violences, and conflicts should some-
times occur, equally against the will of both Governments, is

Appvinliv.

167

[ion of

othiiijl^

und of

ule ac-

|h littvc

tion of

the iin-

his Go-

Irt'sent,

It it is

notice

er Ma-

l\)X to

ich ter-
i justi-
ingtlie
)an(i (if
1 " per-
-^rritory
1 of the

y's Go-
under-
» of the
ih Ter-
re from
jrence ;
Id have
r. Al-
;ted," a
ueh an
e quite

United
n Pro-
pe into
sonie-
?nts. is

certainl)' easily to be suppos(>d. This may he more |K)S8ihle,
))erhaps, in regard to the United States, witiiout any reproach
to their Government, since their institutions entirely discour-
age the keeping uj) of large standing armies in time of peace,
and their situation happily exempts them from the necessity
of maintaining such expensive and dangerous establish-
ments. All tiiat can be expected from either Government,
in these cases, is good faith, a sincere desire to preserve
peace and do justice, the use of all ])roper means of preven-
tion, and that if offences cannot, nevertheless, be always
prevented, the offenders shall still be justly punished. In
all these respects, this Government acknowledges no delin-
quency in the performance of its duties.

Her Majesty's Government are pleased, also, to speak of
those American citizens, who took part with persons in
Canada, engaged in an insurrection against the British Go-
vernment as " Anierican pirates."' The undersigned does
not admit the propriety or justice of this designation. If
citizens of the United States fitted out, or were engaged in
fitting out, a military expedition from the United States, in-
teniled to act against the British Government in Canada,
they were clearly violating the laws of their own country,
and exposing themselves to the just consequences which
might be indicted on them, if taken within the British do-
minions. But notwithstanding this, they were certainly not
pirates, nor tloes the undersigned think that it can advance
the purpose of fair and friendly discussion, or hasten the
accommodation of national difficulties, so to denominate
them, l^heir offence, whatever it was, had no analogy to
cases of piracy. Supposing all that is alleged against them
to be true, they were taking a part in what they regarded
as a civil war, and they were taking a part on the side of
the rebels. Surely England herself has not regarded j)er-
sons thus engaged as deserving the appellation which Her
Majesty's Government bestows on these citizens of the
United States.

It is quite notorious that, for the greater part of the last
two centuries, subjects of the Britisii Crown have been per-
mitted to engage in foreign wars, both national and civil.

168

Appi'udiv.

and in the latter in every stage of their progress ; and yet it
has not been imagined that England has at any time allowed
her suhjects to turn pirates. Indeed in our own tini'^j
not only have individual subjects of that Crown gone ahroac
to engage in civil wars, but we have seen whole regiments
openly recruited, embodied, armed, and disciplined in Eng-
land, with the avowed purpose of aiding a rebellion against
a nation with which England was at peace.

The Government of the United States has not, from the
first, fallen into the doubts elsewhere entertained, of the
true extent of the duties of neutrality. It has held that,
however it may have been in less enlightened ages, the just
interpretation of the modern law of nations is, that neutral
States are bound to be strictly neutral, and that it is a mani-
fest and gross impropriety for individuals to engage in the
civil conflicts of other States, and thus to be at war while
their Government is at peace. War and peace are high na-
tional relations, which can properly be established or changed
only by nations themselves.

The undersigned trusts, that when Her Britannic Majes-
ty's Government shall present the grounds at length, on
which they justify the local authorities of Canada, in at-
tacking and destroying the " Caroline,'^ they will consider
that the laws of the United States are such as the under-
signed has now represented them, and that the Government
of the United States has always manifested a sincere dispo-
sition to see those laws effectually and impartially adminis-
tered. If there have been cases in which individuals, justly
obnoxious to punishment, have escaped, this is no more than
happens in regard to other laws.

Under these circumstances, and under those immediately
connected with the transaction itself, it will be for Her
Majesty ""s Government to show upon what state of facts,
and what rules of national law, the destruction of the
" Caroline" is to be defended. -

LUNIJON :
PRINTED BY J. MITCHELL AND CO., (LATK BUET'lELL,)
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lul yoi it

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Id timt,

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l^e in the

ar wliile

high na-

changed

c Majes-
ngth, on
a, in at-
consider
? under-
ernment
•e dispo-
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s, justly
are than

ediately

For Her

•f facts,

of the

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EXPOSITION OK TItAXSACTIOX.S in CENTRAL ASIA,
through which tho Barriors to the Ihitlsh Possessions in India,
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CORRESPONDENCE between Lord Palmehston, Mr. Back-
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THE PRUSSIAN LEAGUE. By W. Cakoill, Esq.

MEHEMET ALI encouraged to revolt, as a Pretext for the
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Jf)8 Works e.rposmfi the Dawjcr of Enrjland^ and its (Jnusa^s.

CASE OF MCLEOD, in whose Person tl.o (Vown of Groat
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PROGRESS OF RUSSIA IN TllJC EAST. By Sir John

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TURKEY, AND ITS RESOUJtCES. ITS MUNICI1»AL

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Causes.

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[_RhJgii'ai/,

r h'lTi John
V. Murray.
[JNICirAL
y I). Urqu-

rs and Oth'i/.
EY. Fifth

\_Rid(jway.
y tlio same

\^Ridf/waf/.

i>r. Second

[J'oJbnrn.

its l»:ineful
[_Jo/m Reid.

[^Ilatchard.
1 1' ^JVcatv
ur rnivcrsol,
)3t important

S, 1st Jnne,
■d to Turkey

I'Lur srnEET,