§ MR. LINDSAYsaid, he thought that the present discussion had been unduly prolonged. He wished to call the attention of the House to a state of feeling on the part of the people of the United States which required the attention of the House, and which had arisen from the fact that certain ships of the United States had been boarded and fired into by British cruisers. It was alleged that a boat belonging to a British man of war had entered Sagua la Grande, a port on the south coast of Cuba. This boat was manned by fifteen British seamen and commanded by an officer. It boarded all the vessels—one Spanish and twelve American—that were in the harbour, demanded a sight of their papers, inspected the holds, and in some cases went to the extent of breaking into casks in the holds. This was done, not in one of the creeks where suspicious vessels were likely to rendezvous, but in a port of considerable trade, and frequented by a large number of vessels belonging to the United States. In other cases vessels were boarded, fired into, or searched. Intelligence of these acts arrived by the mail on that day week, but further information had been received by the mail that morning. He did not mean to represent these occurrences as very alarming, for he was one of those who could not contemplate the possibility of war between two countries so nearly allied by commerce, but the Government ought to do something 1249 to allay the angry feeling which existed in the United States on this subject. The papers of that morning stated that the United States Government had given orders to the various collectors of Customs to report all outrages committed by the British in the Gulf of Mexico. Orders had also been issued to fit out the frigate Saratoga at New York, and the brig Dolphin at Boston, for strengthening the Gulf squadron. These vessels might come into collision with the British men of war, and a state of things might arise which the people in both countries would deeply deplore. It was further stated that the President had demanded explanations from England and Spain in reference to the search and visitation of American vessels in the vicinity of Cuba and its harbours. The captain of the American brig Wingold, which arrived at Boston on the 16th, reported that on the 30th of April, after leaving Sierra Morena, he was fired into by a British cruiser. One of the balls was buried in the mainmast, close to the captain's head. This vessel was afterwards boarded by a fully armed boat's crew, which insisted on examining the brig's papers. It might be that these vessels were supposed to be engaged in the slave trade, but he did not see how British cruisers were justified in boarding indiscriminately vessels in port. He wished to ask whether it was the fact that several merchant vessels belonging to the United States, engaged in the trade with Havannah or with the west coast of Africa, have been fired into, boarded, searched, and detained by British cruisers, and if so by what authority and under whose instructions the commanders of these ships had acted?
§ MR. WALPOLEsaid, he thought the hon. Gentleman would admit that it was not a convenient course to introduce a matter of this kind into a debate on another subject. Her Majesty's Government had received no account of the indiscriminate firing and boarding alluded to by the hon. Gentleman, and many of the facts reached their ears then for the first time. If the hon. Gentleman gave notice of a question on the subject, the Government would give him every information in their power.
§ MR. GRIFFITHsaid, that he was anxious to make one or two remarks in justification of the course he had taken in putting the question to the noble Lord the Member for Tiverton, when Prime Minister, which had been referred to in the 1250 course of discussion, namely, whether Her Majesty's then Government would suggest the publication of the apology of the French Emperor in the Moniteur? It was the production of the second despatch of Count Walewski, expressing the regret of the Emperor of the French for the publication of the previous despatch, which had turned the feeling of the house, and given the noble Lord the majority of 200; but he believed that if the House had been at all aware that that despatch would not receive the same publicity as the addresses of the French Colonels, the majority would have considerably dwindled down. The question which he had put to the noble Lord was couched in the mildest terms, but the noble Lord's answer was such as to draw down a perfect shower of indignation on his devoted head. He apprehended, however, that the feeling of the country had not ratified the answer of the noble Lord. The original majority of 200 was not obtained upon the merits of the case, but on the apology contained in Count Walewski's despatch; and the question he (Mr. Griffith) had put was only such as it was his duty as an independent Member of Parliament—the slave or follower of no master or Minister—to put; and whatever might be the opinion of the House, he was prepared to contend that the feeling of the country did not then, and did not now, ratify the answer of the noble Lord.
§ MR. INGHAMsaid, that in reference to the case of the British engineers Watt and Park he wished to remind the House that the late Government acted under the direction of their law advisers; that there were great difficulties in the way of obtaining accurate knowledge of the facts, from the suspension of diplomatic relations between England and Naples; and that the engineers received the best legal assistance at the instance of the Government, and by the same means were permitted to see their relatives and friends.
§ Motion agreed to.