Mr. Graham to Sir P. Wodehouse.  August 12, 1863.

Upon receiving your last communication to me dated the 10th instant, I deemed it simply a report of progress on one subject treated of in my last letter to your Excellency, and I have therefore waited anxiously for the receipt of another letter from the Colonial Secretary communicating the final result in the case.  Failing to receive it, and hearing yesterday P.M. that the Tuscaloosa would proceed to Sea from Simon’s Bay to-day, I applied for an injunction from the Supreme Court to prevent the vessel sailing before I had an opportunity of showing by witnesses that she is owned in Philadelphia in the United States, and her true name is Conrad; that she has never been condemned as a prize by any legally constituted Admiralty Court; and that I am ex officio the legal agent of the owners, underwriters, and all others concerned.  I have not yet learned the result of that application, and fearing that delay may allow her to escape, I would respectfully urge you to detain her in port until the proper legal steps can be taken.

I am well aware that your Government has conceded to the so-called Confederate States the rights of belligerents, and is thereby bound to respect Captain Semmes’ commission; but having refused to recognize the “Confederacy” as a nation, and having excluded his captures from all the ports of the British Empire, the captures necessarily revert to their real owners, and are forfeited by Captain Semmes as soon as they enter a British port.

Hoping to receive an answer to this and the preceding letter as early as possible, and that you will not construe my persistent course throughout this correspondence on neutral rights as importunate, or my remarks as inopportune, I have, &c.

Mr. Rawson to Mr. Graham.  August 12, 1863.

I am directed by the Governor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date, and to acquaint you that it was not until late last evening that his Excellency received from the naval Commander-in-chief information that the condition of the Tuscaloosa was such as, as his Excellency is advised, to entitle her to be regarded as a vessel of war.

The Governor is not aware, nor do you refer him to the provisions of international law by which captured vessels, as soon as they enter our neutral ports, revert to their real owners, and are forfeited by their captors.  But his Excellency believes that the claims of contending parties to vessels captured can only be determined in the first instance by the Courts of the captor’s country.

The Governor desires me to add that he cannot offer any objection to the tenor of the correspondence which you have addressed to him on this subject, and that he is very sensible of the courtesy you have exhibited under such very peculiar circumstances!!!  He gives you credit for acting on a strict sense of duty to your country.