the Northern States of America have had supplies of arms from this country, they have only to go to a gentleman who, I am sure, will be ready to afford them every information, and much more readily than he would to me or to any one else calling upon him—­the American consul in Liverpool.  Before that gentleman the manifest of every ship is laid, he has to give an American pass to each vessel; he is consequently able to tell the exact number of rifles which have been shipped from this country for the United States—­information, I doubt not, which would be very generally desired by this house. (Loud cries of “Hear.”) I have obtained from the official custom house returns some details of the sundries exported from the United Kingdom to the Northern States of America from the 1st of May, 1861, to the 31st of December, 1862.  There were—­muskets, 41,500 (hear, hear); rifles, 341,000 (cheers); gun flints, 26,500; percussion caps, 49,982,000 (cheers and laughter); and swords, 2,250.  The best information I could obtain leads me to believe that from one-third to a half may be added to these numbers for items which have been shipped to the Northern States as hardware. (Hear, hear.) I have very good reason for saying that a vessel of 2,000 tons was chartered six weeks ago for the express purpose of taking out a cargo of “hardware” to the United States. (Cheers.) The exportation has not ceased yet.  From the 1st of January to the 17th March, 1863, the custom bills of entry show that 23,870 gun-barrels, 30,802 rifles, and 3,105,800 percussion caps were shipped to the United States. (Hear, hear).  So that if the Southern States have got two ships, unarmed, unfit for any purpose of warfare—­for they procured their armaments somewhere else—­the Northern States have been well supplied from this country through the agency of some most influential persons. (Hear, hear.) Now, it has been stated—­and by way of comparison treated as matter of complaint—­that during the Crimean war the Americans behaved so well that the honourable member for Bradford and the member for Birmingham both lauded their action as compared with that of our own Government.  Now, I have heard that a vessel sailed from the United States to Petropaulovski. (Cries of “Name.”) If honourable members will allow me I will go on, and first I propose to read an extract from the Times, written by their correspondent at San Francisco, dated the 29th of January, 1863:—­

“Now, this case of the Alabama illustrates the saying that a certain class should have a good memory.  During the Crimean war, a man-of-war (called the America, if I remember) was built in America for the Russian Government, and brought out to the Pacific, filled with arms and munitions, by an officer in the United States navy.  This gentleman took her to Petropaulovski, where she did service against the allied squadron, and she is still in the Russian navy. (Cries of ‘No,’ and ‘Hear, hear.’) We made no such childish fuss about this act of ‘hostility’ by a friendly Power, which we could not prevent, as our friends are now making about the Alabama, whose departure from England our Government could not stop.”