His Excellency will, by next mail, make a full report of the case to Her Majesty’s Government.

Mr. Graham to Sir P. Wodehouse.  August 10, 1863.

Your decision in the case of the Sea Bride was duly received at four o’clock p.  M. on Saturday.  In communicating that decision you simply announce that the vessel was, in your opinion, and according to evidence before you, a legal prize to the Alabama; but you omit to state the principle of international law that governed your decision, and neglect to furnish me with the evidence relied upon by you.

Under these circumstances I can neither have the evidence verified or rebutted here, nor am I enabled to transmit it as it stands to the American Minister at London, nor to the United States Government at Washington.  An invitation to be present when the ex parte testimony was taken was not extended to me, and I am therefore ignorant of the tenor of it, and cannot distinguish the portion thrown out from that which was accepted.  If your decision is that the neutral waters of this colony only extend a distance of three miles from land, the character of that decision would have been aptly illustrated to the people of Cape Town had an American war-vessel appeared on the scene, and engaged the Alabama in battle.  In such a contest with cannon carrying a distance of six miles (three overland), the crashing buildings in Cape Town would have been an excellent commentary on your decision.

But the decision has been made, and cannot be revoked here, so that further comment at present is, therefore, unnecessary.  It can only be reversed by the Government you represent, which it probably will be when the United States Government shall claim indemnity for the owners of the Sea Bride.

An armed vessel named the Tuscaloosa, claiming to act under the authority of the so-called Confederate States, entered Simon’s Bay on Saturday the 8th instant.  That vessel was formerly owned by citizens of the United States, and while engaged in lawful commerce was captured as a prize by the Alabama.  She was subsequently fitted out with arms by the Alabama to prey upon the commerce of the United States, and now, without having been condemned as a prize by any Admiralty Court of any recognized Government, she is permitted to enter a neutral port in violation of the Queen’s Proclamation, with her original cargo on board.  Against this proceeding I hereby most emphatically protest, and I claim that the vessel ought to be given up to her lawful owners.  The capture of the Sea Bride in neutral waters, together with the case of the Tuscaloosa, also a prize, constitute the latest and best illustration of British neutrality that has yet been given.

Mr. Rawson to Mr. Graham.  August 10, 1863.

I am directed by the Governor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date, and to state with reference to that part of it which relates to the Tuscaloosa, that his Excellency is still in correspondence with the Commander-in-chief respecting the character of that vessel, and the privileges to which she is entitled.