Answer of the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs to the note of the Brazilian minister in Paris, inclosing the foregoing note of M. de Bemusat, April 16, 1872

Answer of the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs to the note of the Brazilian minister in Paris, inclosing the foregoing note of M. de Bemusat.

[Résumé of the statement in M. de Remusat’s note. Translation of certain parts.]

In respect to the incident which took place with the Bruix, instead of being an offense to the French legation and navy, which never was intended by the Brazilian government, whose moderation is known to M. de Remusat, it was the necessary consequence of the proceeding which has been so worthily condemned by the government of the republic. In the state of abandonment in which the prizes were left in the port of Rio de Janeiro by the captor, they could not be taken away even in tow of a French vessel of war, without previous permission of the imperial government, which in so grave a matter could not come to any resolution without taking the advice of the legal councilors of the Crown, and so much the more from the fact that the government had also to give proper hearing to the observations of the North German legation.

It was not, therefore, without pain that the government of Brazil read the last stricture in the note of M. de Remusat, especially since his excellency found in this proceeding of our government a cause of offense which did not exist; and since, also, the French legation had ignored, in that emergency, the indisputable rights of this empire as a neutral power.