In the meantime, the United States Consul had, on the 5th August, addressed to me a written statement that the Federal barque Sea Bride had been taken “about four miles from the nearest land,” and “already in British waters;” on which I promised immediate inquiry.  The next day the Consul repeated his protest, supporting it by an affidavit of the master of the prize, which he held to show that she had been taken about two miles and a half from the land; and the agent for the United States underwriters, on the same day, made a similar protest.  On the 7th, the Consul represented that the prize had, on the previous day, been brought within one mile and a half of the lighthouse, which he considered as much a violation of the neutrality as if she had been there captured, and asked me to have the prize crew taken out and replaced by one from the Valorous, which I declined.

I had, during this period, been seeking for authentic information as to the real circumstances of the capture, more particularly with reference to the actual distance from the shore, and obtained through the Acting Attorney-General statements from the keeper of the Green Point Lighthouse (this was supported by the Collector of Customs), from the signal-man at the station at the Lion’s Rump, and from an experienced boatman who was passing between the shore and the vessels at the time.  Captain Forsyth, of the Valorous, also made inquiries of the captain of the Alabama and of the Port Captain, and made known the result to me.  And upon all these statements I came to the conclusion that the vessels were not less than four miles distant from land; and on the 8th I communicated to the United States Consul that the capture could not, in my opinion, be held to be illegal by reason of the place at which it was effected.

In his reply of the 10th, the Consul endeavoured to show how indefensible my decision must be, if, in these days of improved artillery, I rested it on the fact of the vessels having been only three miles from land.  This passage is, I think, of considerable importance, as involving an indirect admission that they were not within three miles at the time of capture.  And I hope your Grace will concur in my view that it was not my duty to go beyond what I found to be the distance clearly established by past decisions under international law.

An important question has arisen in connection with the Alabama, on which it is very desirable that I should, as soon as practicable, be made acquainted with the views of Her Majesty’s Government.  Captain Semmes had mentioned after his arrival in port, that he had left outside one of his prizes previously taken, the Tuscaloosa, which he had equipped and fitted as a tender, and had ordered to meet him in Simon’s Bay, as she also stood in need of supplies.  When this became known to the naval commander-in-chief, he requested me to furnish him with a legal opinion; and whether this vessel could he held to be a ship