to observe, that it is the duty of her Majesty's subjects to conform to her Majesty's proclamation, and to abstain from furnishing to either of the belligerent parties any of the means of war, which are prohibited to be furnished by that proclamation. I am, sir, &c., T. B. HORSFALL, Esq., &c., &c., &c. A. H. LAYARD. [Circular-No 19.] To the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States in foreign countries. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 8, 1862. At no former period of our history have our agricultural, manufacturing, or mining interests been more prosperous than at this juncture. This fact may be deemed surprising in view of the enhanced price for labor, occasioned by the demand for the rank and file of the armies of the United States. It may, therefore, be confidently asserted that, even now, nowhere else can the industrious laboring man and artisan expect so liberal a recompense for his services as in the United States. You are authorized and directed to make these truths known in any quarter and in any way which may lead to the migration of such persons to this country. It is believed that a knowledge of them will alone suffice to cause them to be acted upon. The government has no legal authority to offer any pecuniary inducements to the advent of industrious foreigners. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. [Circular-No. 18.] To the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States in foreign countries. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 8, 1862. It is expected that, until further notice, you will not issue a passport to any citizen between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, and otherwise liable to the performance of military duty, who you may have reason to suppose shall have left the United States subsequently to this date. No. 319.] WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 8, 1862. Sır: Your despatch of July 24 (No. 193) has been received. I have anticipated and have already, as I think, met by previous instructions the re-enforcement of prejudices in Great Britain against the cause of the govern ment and of the country resulting from the disappointment of our first demonstrations against Richmond. I have nothing more to add to those instructions, except to inform you that since their date the reorganization and distribution of our forces have been going on quietly and, I believe, skilfully, with a view to decisive operations; that the three hundred thousand volunteers called for are now coming forward with such alacrity as will probably enable us to dispense with the projected draft, and that the other three hundred thousand provided for by draft will be in the field as soon as they shall be needed. The soldiers of the United States will then be near a million in number. Our naval prepa rations are going forward with vigor, and I trust that we shall not be unready for any emergency that can happen at home or abroad. The question of the status of the inhabitants in the disloyal States will be speedily resolved as the army advances through their territories, which, perhaps, is as fast as public opinion in the loyal States will ripen to receive it. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. No. 322.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. [Extracts.Confidential.] DEPARTMENT Of State, Washington, August 13, 1862. SIR: Your despatch of July 31 (No. 197) has been received. I remark, with reference to the reports circulated by American traitors in London that the Emperor of the French proposes to recognize the insurgents without waiting for any new combinations, that there is nothing to confirm these reports in any communication, official or unofficial, which has been received by us from Paris. We learn from that capital that there, as in England, sentiments unfavorable to our cause and our country seem to be gaining more general favor under the inculcations of a hostile press. In all his communications with this government the Emperor of the French has preserved a tone that was frank, friendly, and respectful, letting us understand, however, that a strong pressure upon the government was made by classes which attributed their sufferings to a deficiency of a supply of cotton. The statement by disunionists that the Emperor has directed Mr. Slidell to instruct Mr. Mason to make another formal appeal to Earl Russell preliminary to his own separate and exclusive action seems improbable. Could the cupidity of British merchants resist the temptation to keep peace with us if France should go to war alone? Could France propose to go to war with us without Great Britain as an ally? Is France more ready for hazards of war than Great Britain? While we are making ourselves ready, as far as possible, for whatever emergency may happen in our foreign relations, and while we sensibly feel that the present apparent condition of suspended activity in our military operations tends to encourage hostile machinations abroad, we nevertheless rely with much confidence on other circumstances for a continuance of peace and forbearance First. All the world knows that we shall not entertain any foreign mediation in our domestic affairs; this decision was made known at an early period, and if we have not repeated it with emphasis, it has been because such repetitions would seem disrespectful to foreign powers, and would be inconsistent with the proper dignity of this government. Secondly. We are supplying Europe with grain and gold, and even cotton, to the best of our ability, and no one can safely predict that equal supplies could be obtained here or elsewhere if the maritime powers should wage or provoke a war with this government. Thirdly. Our preparations for continuing the war are vigorous and successful. On the 15th of this month we shall have enlisted and coming into the field three hundred thousand new volunteers for the war, and within forty days thereafter this force will be followed by three hundred thousand militia, who will be organized as volunteers and will be not less effective. The construction of iron-clad ships is going on, on a scale and with a vigor that promises as complete a naval defence as any other nation pos sesses. When I have told you of our large preparations, I have told you all that is important to be known, except that General Halleck evinces great skill, activity, and grasp, in reorganizing our forces for renewing military operations. Richmond is at this moment the centre of our anxieties. Our plans for operations against it are not so settled and decisive as to allow me to communicate them, for the reason that they may be modified by discoveries of the plans of the insurgents. General Pope had on Saturday, the 9th, a successful engagement with a portion of the insurgent army. There is every reason to expect important military occurrences, and, perhaps, a development of the plan for a new campaign before the departure of the next steamer. All that can be said now is, that the popular spirit is sound, and we expect that the tone of public confidence will be highly improved as the new levies, now moving from their homes, reach and join and re-enforce the apparently sedentary forces in their camps. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. No. 323.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 13, 1862. SIR: Your despatch of August 1 (No. 201) has been received. Your proceedings in conveying to Earl Russell the explanations concerning the Mexican question, heretofore confided to you, are approved. So also is the action you have taken in regard to the piratical vessels Oreto and 290, and our protest against the perversion of the neutral privileges of the island of Nassau. You will, on proper occasion, make known to Earl Russell the satisfaction which the President has derived from the just and friendly proceedings and language of the British government in regard to these subjects. When we consider how soon this insurrection would wither and die when deprived of the sympathies of the British nation and the hope of aid which those sympathies, now so active, have awakened; how soon commerce would revive; how beneficent, as well as how soothing, to the British nation the restoration of our domestic peace must necessarily be; and what hopes for the British race everywhere, and even for civilization itself, are treasured up in a necessary harmony and co-operation of the dis tinct families of that race, found on every continent and on so many islands, it seems impossible to account for the hostile disposition of a portion of the British people toward the United States, except on the ground of an unnecessary jealousy, which is feeding an unwise and unnatural ambition. Your communication with Earl Russell on the subject of New Granada, and especially the Isthmus of Panama, including the views expressed by him, are entirely satisfactory to the President. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, No. 324.J Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 14, 1862. SIR: Your despatch of July 31 (No. 198) is before me. I confess my surprise at the hesitation of the British government in regard to admitting our cruisers into their ports in China. The Chinese are engaged in civil war, which threatens the safety not only of all western commerce but of the foreign residents of whatever country in China. Practically, and by force of circumstances, we are allies with the British in protecting this commerce and all those residents against the belligerent parties; there never has been, and I feel quite assured that there never will be, an insurgent American vessel of any kind in the Chinese seas. The exclusion of our vessels, therefore, seems unnecessary upon any ground that the British government has assumed, while it is injurious to Great Britain and other western nations, as well as the United States. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., Sc., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. No. 326.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 15, 1862. SIR: Complaints having been made through Mr. Stuart, her Britannic Majesty's chargé d'affaires here, of the exaction of bonds on merchandise exported from New York for Nassau, explanations upon the subject have been requested of the Secretary of the Treasury. A copy of a letter of the 9th instant, from Mr. Barney to Mr. Chase, is herewith enclosed, which contains those explanations. You may, if you deem it necessary or proper, communicate a transcript of the same to Earl Russell. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. [Circular-No. 20.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: Ideas of appeal, mediation, and intervention seem to hold their place in the European mind, although their novelty has long since worn off. Our representatives abroad, therefore, under the apprehension that some form of interference may be attempted or adopted, frequently and urgently ask for information concerning the purposes of this government. No foreign state has at any time communicated or intimated to us, in any 'way, a design, or even a disposition, to take a new attitude in regard to our domestic affairs. Generally the communications which we have received have been marked with directness and frankness. It would, therefore, imply an unbecoming and even unreal distrust on our part to assume that any hostile intentions are indulged by the maritime powers of Europe. On the other hand, this government can at no time forget that foreign intervention is the inevitable result of long-continued domestic strife; nor can we forget that the existing attitude of all those powers was assumed without their having given us any previous notice; that it is anomalous, and, although unintentionally so, it is nevertheless practically unfriendly and injurious. The government, moreover, cannot affect to be ignorant that disloyal citizens of the United States are abroad, and that parties and masses are agitating Europe to induce or oblige its governments to intervene. Beside these circumstances, it must be remembered that the prosecution of civil war is attended by accidents which beget misapprehensions and excite passions and prejudices in foreign states. It is therefore our duty to act as if we supposed that some of the maritime powers, although they are not indeed waiting upon occasion, may yet, upon some unexpected vicissitude, be found directly or indirectly allied and co-operating with our internal enemies. I think that the instructions which have issued from this department have not left our representatives any room to doubt that it is the determination of the government to defend the integrity of the country and maintain the Union, under all circumstances and against all who in any case may assail them. I think, moreover, that the magnitude and the character of our land and naval preparations indicate the same determination, which is the result, not of variable impulses, but of fixed convictions and unchangeable principles. Formal declarations of a policy, clearly enough revealed without them, are unnecessary and generally injudicious, because they provoke needless and often embarrassing criticism and debate. Our representatives abroad are nevertheless entitled to understand, and sometimes it may be profitable for them to know, the grounds upon which a fixed and important policy is pursued. While the nation is convulsed with a civil strife of unexampled propor tions, it would be presumptuous, perilous, and criminal to court or provoke foreign wars. Reviewing the whole course of the existing administration, I may safely claim that it shows that, even if the government had been left at liberty to conduct its foreign relations, altogether irrespectively of the civil war, it would yet have chosen and maintained a policy of peace, harmony, and friendship towards all nations. It is certainly our especial care, under existing circumstances, to do no injustice, to give no offence, and to offer and receive explanations in a liberal spirit whenever they are possible, and thus to make sure that if, at any time, either accidentally or through the |