I confess that on such evidence of such a fact I did not consider myself warranted in requiring the commander of Her Majesty’s ship Valorous to take possession of the Alabama’s prize.

The questions involved in the treatment of the Tuscaloosa are far more important and more embarrassing; and first let me state, with reference to the suggestion that Captain Semmes should have been required to admit or deny the allegations of the United States Consul, that no such proceeding was required.  There was not the slightest mystery or concealment of the circumstances under which the Tuscaloosa had come into, and then was in possession of the Confederates.  The facts were not disputed.  We were required to declare what was her actual status under those facts.  We had recourse to Wheaton, the best authority on International Law within our reach—­an authority of the nation with whom the question had arisen—­an authority which the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs had recently been quoting in debates on American questions in the House of Lords.

Your Grace intimates that the citation from this authority by the Acting Attorney-General does not appear to have any direct bearing upon the question.

You will assuredly believe that it is not from any want of respect for your opinion, but solely from a desire to avoid future error, that I confess my inability to understand this intimation, or, in the absence of instructions on that head, to see in what direction I am to look for the law bearing on the subject.

The paragraph cited made no distinction between a vessel with cargo and a vessel without cargo; and your Grace leaves me in ignorance whether her character would have been changed if Captain Semmes had got rid of the cargo before claiming for her admission as a ship of war.  Certainly, acts had been done by him which, according to Wheaton, constituted a “setting forth as a vessel of war.”

Your Grace likewise states, “Whether in the case of a vessel duly commissioned as a ship of war, after being made prize by a belligerent Government without being first brought infra praesidia, or condemned by a Court of Prize, the character of prize, within the meaning of Her Majesty’s orders, would or would not be merged in a national ship of war, I am not called upon to explain.”

I feel myself forced to ask for further advice on this point, on which it is quite possible I may be called upon to take an active part.  I have already, in error apparently, admitted a Confederate prize as a ship of war.  The chief authority on International Law, in which it is in my power to refer, is Wheaton, who apparently draws no distinction between ships of war and other ships when found in the position of prizes; and I wish your Grace to be aware that within the last few days the commander of a United States ship of war observed to me that if it were his good fortune to capture the Alabama, he should convert her into a Federal cruiser.