as I can judge, five hundred yards. Glancing from this point, it continued its flight about two hundred and fifty yards and lodged in a side-hill in an adjoining pasture. It was supposed at the time by myself, and those who witnessed the firing, that this shot lodged in or near the top of the bluff, as portions of earth and loose stones were seen to fall down the precipice immediately after the shot was seen to strike the water. Two shells were then fired from a 32-pounder smooth-bore gun, charge 6 pounds powder, with 3o elevation, 5′′ fuse, both of which exploded within five yards of the ledge-both excellent shots, so called by those of experience in such matters. Not until the next day was I aware that one of these shots passed over the Head, on learning which I immediately went over, and, in company with Mr. Taylor, found where the shot struck. Upon measuring the distance, it proved to be three hundred yards from his house, in'an open field. I followed the course of the shot in its flight, and succeeded in finding it. I assured the inhabitants, at the same time, that it was purely accidental on my part, and in the future I would avoid a repetition of the offence. They appeared perfectly satisfied with my explanation, &c. It was my intention to have seen Captain Robinson (the owner of the island) that night, but he being absent, as I was informed, I did not see him. In a few days I received a communication from him, requesting me to make an explanation of the affair in writing, that he might be enabled to answer any question that should arise from those superior to him in authority. Enclosed is a copy of his letter, with my reply. The reason of my making a target of this bluff was, it is quite impossible to practice artillery without firing on their domain or waters. Troops stationed at this post have heretofore practiced artillery against this Head, it being the least dangerous of any point within range of the guns of the batteries in this vicinity. I also forward with this report a sketch of the different islands in this vicinity; also the location of the two batteries-one on Treat's island, the other on Todd's Head, Eastport. The battery on Treat's island consists of two rifled 24-pounders, casemate; two 32-pounders, smooth-bore, casemate. The battery on Todd's Head is two rifled 24-pounder guns, mounted on barbette carriages; and three 32-pounders, smooth-bore, casemate. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, THOMAS P. HUTCHINSON, Capt. Co. C Unattached Inf. Maine Vols., Com`g Post. S. K. DAWSON, Commanding Coast Defences Maine, Portland, Me. Captain Robinson to Captain Hutchinson. CAMPOBELLO, N. B., August 16, 1864. SIR: Yesterday I went over to Treat's island for the purpose of seeing you and calling your attention to the practicing the guns of the battery on that island upon Friar's Head, so called, in Campobello; and also to that of a shot having richocheted over the Head during the practice on Thursday, the 11th instant, passing over a house and striking the earth near a barn occupied by a man named Taylor. I had awaited until then, hoping to have heard from you some explanation of the circumstances, having not the slightest doubt but that the latter event was purely accidental. But in your position as commandant of a fort you must be aware, on consideration, that firing shot into a friendly and neighboring territory, without permission, is entirely against all law of nations; and although owning the soil, I much question whether it would have been in my power to grant permission, even had it been asked, as the sovereignty of the soil lies in the nation, not in the individual. It is far from my wish to create any ill feeling on this occasion, or make any unnecessary importance of the affair, it being, as I thoroughly believe, purely a piece of inadvertence; but it will be necessary for you to be so good as to inform me so in writing, and also that the same may not be repeated, that I may be enabled to answer the inquiries of those superior to me in authority. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Capt. HUTCHINSON, U. S. A., J. ROBINSON, J. P. and Captain Royal Navy. Commandant Forts, &c. Captain Hutchinson to Captain Robinson. EASTPORT, ME., August 16, 1864. CAPTAIN: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date. In reply, I would say 'twas not my intention to practice the battery on the island until I had received permission from you, but on that day having some military company who wished to see the effect of two or three shots against the Head, and not having the least idea the shot would miss the Head, I took the liberty to fire three shots, and to guard against doing any injury, I was careful to have the gun depressed, so as to have the shot to fall short, rather than run the risk of carrying over the Head; but, contrary to my expectations, the first shot (as it afterwards proved) ricocheted after striking the water, and passed over the Head, striking as you stated in your letter. At the time we all thought the ball lodged against the ledge, and not until the next day did I know of the facts. I went over immediately on learning the circumstance and saw Mr. Parker, who showed me where the shot struck. I followed the course, and found the shot in an adjoining pasture. The other two shots I found on the beach under the Head. I was treated very kindly by Mr. Parker and others whom I met while on the island, and to whom I apologized, assuring them it would not be repeated, at the same time intending to call on you and do the same. Circumstances since the affair have been such that I have been unable to do so. Hoping the affair will create no ill feeling, I will do myself the honor to call upon you personally at the earliest opportunity, and give, perhaps, a more satisfactory explanation. I am, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant. J. ROBINSON, THOMAS P. HUTCHINSON, Captain, Commanding Fort Sullivan. J. P. and Captain Royal Navy, Campobello, N. B. Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley. DEPARTMENT of State, Washington, December 15, 1864. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Lord Lyons's note of the 5th instant, together with its accompanying copy of a despatch from the governor general of Canada, relative to the schemes of the insurgents in Canada against the United States. Accept, sir, renewed assurance of my high consideration. J. HUME BURNLEY, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 15, 1864. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 9th instant, relative to the case of the Labuan, and, in reply, to inform you that it will receive attention. Accept, sir, a renewed assurance of my high consideration. J. HUME BURNLEY, Esq., &., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 16, 1864. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your note of the 12th instant, transmitting a copy of a note from his excellency the gov ernor general of Canada relative to the alleged existence of a military organi⚫zation in Canada of fugitives from the United States, which formed the subject of my communication of the 29th ultimo to Lord Lyons. I have the honor to be, with high consideration, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. J. HUME BURNLEY, Esq., &c., &c., &c. Mr. Burnley to Mr. Seward. BRITISH LEGATION, Washington, December 16, 1864. MY DEAR SIR: I have just received a telegraphic message from Viscount Monck, begging me to convey to you his thanks for the prompt and satisfactory explanation of General Dix's order. He begs me to assure you of his vexation at the turn affairs have taken in the St. Albans case, and that the Canadian government are doing everything in their power to remedy the mischief done by the magistrate's extraordinary decision. As a good deal of excitement, however, prevails in consequence of General Dix's order, Viscount Monck is anxious to know whether you would object to his making public the substance of what I telegraphed to him, which was, "that the order had been issued without instructions, but that steps would be taken to prevent action on that portion of it which related to crossing the border into Canada," I am, very truly, yours, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c., &c., &c. J. HUME BURNLEY. Mr. Burnley to Mr. Seward. WASHINGTON, December 16, 1864. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your note of the 14th instant relative to the two apprentices of the Cuzco, in which you are good enough to inform me that this government does not deem itself under either a legal or moral obligation to deliver up the aforenamed deserters or to pay any damages for their detention, and that this decision is based upon the ground that in a similar case which occurred in England the British government refused to deliver up two American deserters: I was under the impression, when your note of the 16th ultimo reached me, that it had been implied that the boys would be given up, owing to an expression made use of by R. A. Hill in a letter which formed one of the enclosures with regard to John Williams. "He will be given up to any one authorized to receive him;" the other being in the naval hospital of New York, unfit for service of any kind. I will, however, do myself the honor of transmitting a copy of your note to her Majesty's government, and would beg leave to repeat, what I mentioned in my note of the 18th ultimo, that the name of the other boy is not Arthur Cox but Alfred Dewick. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c., &c., &c. J. HUME BURNLEY. Mr. Burnley to Mr. Seward. WASHINGTON, December 17, 1864. SIR: The lords commissioners of the admiralty have received from Vice-Admiral Sir Augustus Kuper, commanding her Majesty's naval forces in the eastern seas, an account of the successful operations lately undertaken by a combined squadron of English, French, Dutch, and United States vessels against the batteries erected by the Japanese prince of Nagato in the straits of Simono-Saki. Sir A. Kuper reports that the most cordial good feeling prevailed throughout the operations between the officers and men of the allied forces, and he attributes, in great measure, to that good feeling the speedy and entire success with which the operations of the combined squadron were crowned. It is with feelings of great pleasure that I am enabled to lay before you the enclosed copy of a letter which Sir A. Kuper addressed to Lieutenant Pearson, of the United States navy, expressing the sense which the British admiral entertains of the important services rendered on that occasion by the officers and men detached from the United States corvette Jamestown. And, in accordance with the wish of the admiralty, her Majesty's government instructs me to request that the United States government will have the goodness to convey to Lieutenant Pearson the acknowledgment of the lords commissioners for the ready co-operation which that gallant officer afforded to the British admiral during the whole of the operations in question. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c., &c., &c. J. HUME BURNLEY. Admiral Kuper to Lieutenant Pearson. HER MAJESTY'S SHIP EURYALUS, Straits of Simono-Saki, September 11, 1861. SIR: The operations in the straits of Simono-Saki having terminated, I am desirous of conveying to yourself, and through you to the men under your immediate orders, the expres sion of my best thanks for the assistance rendered by the Takiang throughout the progress of the recent events, which have been attended with the most complete and successful results. The courtesy shown by you in receiving temporarily on board the Takiang the wounded of the squadron has been of considerable advantage to us, and I shall have much pleasure in reporting to her Majesty's government your ready acquiescence in my wishes on all occasions when the services of the Takiang could be made available in any manner towards the success of the operations. I have, &c., Lieutenant PEARSON, U. S. N. AUGUSTUS L. KUPER, U. S. Steam Vessel Takiang. Mr. Burnley to Mr. Seward. WASHINGTON, December 17, 1864. SIR: I have the honor to communicate to you, under the instructions which I have received from her Majesty's principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, the enclosed copy of a despatch addressed to Lord Lyons relative to the intention of the United States government, in conformity with the treaty reservation right, to increase their naval armament upon the North American lakes. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c., &c. &c. J. HUME BURNLEY. Earl Russell to Lord Lyons. FOREIGN OFFICE, November 26, 1864. MY LORD: Your lordship, in your despatch of the 28th ultimo, has referred to the intention of the United States government to give notice to her Majesty's government that, in conformity with the treaty reservation of the right to give such notice, the United States government will deem themselves at liberty, at the expiration of six months after the communication shall have been made, to increase their naval armament upon the North American lakes, if, in their judgment, the condition of affairs should require it; and you have enclosed a copy of a despatch from Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams, which, after referring to the case of the Chesapeake, and after relating various acts of aggression from Canada, namely, the seizure and destruction of the Philo Parsons and Island Queen on the lakes, and the attack upon the town of St. Albans, in Vermont, by a party of twenty-five men, issuing from the British territory, proceeds to lay down the following important propositions: 1. "The insufficiency of the British neutrality act, and of the warnings of the Queen's proclamation to arrest the causes of the complaint referred to, were anticipated early in the existing struggle, and the British government was asked to apply a remedy by passing an act more stringent in its character, such as ours of the 10th of March, 1838, which was occasioned by a similar condition of affairs." This request has not been complied with, though its reasonableness and necessity have been shown by subsequent acts. 2. "It is now my duty to instruct you to give notice to Earl Russell, in conformity with the treaty reservation of that right, that, at the expiration of six months after you shall have made this communication, the United States will deem themselves at liberty to increase the naval armaments upon the lakes, if, in their judgment, the condition of affairs in that quarter shall then require it." 3. After again recurring to the measure of 1838, Mr. Seward says: "I should fail, however, to express a sincere conviction of this government if I should not repeat now, what I have heretofore so often had occasion to say, that practically the policy of neutrality which her Majesty has proclaimed has failed as well in the British home ports as in the British colonies, and especially in the latter, and that it must continue to fail more conspicuously every day so long as asylum is allowed there to active agents of the enemies of the United States, and they are in any way able, by evasion or otherwise, to use the British ports and British borders as a base for felonious depredations against the citizens of the United States; nor are we able to conceive of any remedy adequate to the present exigency but the recognition by her Majesty's government of the first and exclusive sovereignty of the United States in all the waters and territories legally subject to the jurisdiction of this government." On the 23d instant I received from Mr. Adams the note which I enclose, and the several documents annexed to it; but as they are the same in substance as the communication you have sent me, I think it will be more convenient to deal with the formal and authoritative despatch of the Secretary of State. 66 1. The reference to the act of March 10, 1838, (of which I enclose a copy,) will not have any application with respect to vessels leaving the shores of the United Kingdom. The difficulty in regard to vessels fitted out or equipped in our home ports has always consis.ed in proving that the vessel was provided or prepared for any military expedition or enterprise against the ter ritory or dominions of any foreign prince or state with whom her Majesty is at peace," and a similar difficulty would be found in enacting a law exactly copied from the United States act of March 10, 1838. With regard to "territories conterminous with the United States," it might, indeed, more easily be proved, with respect to any military bodies assembled near the border, that they were intended to cross the frontier in hostility to a state with whom her Majesty is at peace. On this part of the question I have to desire you to assure Mr. Seward that the subject is undergoing the most searching investigation by the law officers of the Crown, with a view to take the most effectual measures to prevent incursions from the bordering British provinces into the territory of the United States. In the mean time I have to observe that in the early part of the war, while active efforts were made to fit out, in British ports, ships intended to be completed in the waters of other neutral States, as ships-of-war, and thence to be employed as cruisers against the United States, but few, if any, attempts were made to disturb the frontier of Canada by military or naval expeditions. Hence the act of Congress of March, 1838, was not considered to be applicable to the existing state of affairs. I may also observe, that during the late insurrection in Poland, although the governments of Austria and Prussia were, from a regard to their own interests, unfavorable to that insurrection, and although their means of repression were much more available and much more energetic than ours ever can be, yet insurgent expeditions from Galicia and from the Duchy of Posen were of very frequent occurrence. The governor of Canada, it is admitted by the United States government, has done all that he could lawfully do, and if his efforts should fail and other measures of repression consistent with the nature of our government shall be found requisite, her Majesty's government will not hesitate to propose them. 2. It is perfectly competent to the United States to give notice that at the end of six months that government will be at liberty to increase their naval force on the lakes. It is certainly true that while both nations are disarmed on the lakes, marauders or depredators may destroy or |