Right Honorable the Earl of Clarendon to Charles Francis Adams, June 6, 1866

Lord Clarendon to Mr. Adams.

Sir: In my letter of the 19th January, replying to yours of the 28th December, of the subject of the Shenandoah, I had the honor to inform you that inquiries should be made into the conduct of the authorities at Melbourne during the time that that vessel remained at Melbourne, and that prosecutions should be instituted, under the foreign enlistment act against any British subject who might be proved, by trust worthy testimony, to have take service in that vessel, and I have now the honor to communicate to you the result of the action taken by her Majesty’s government in this matter.

The statements in the letter from the United States consul at Liverpool, which were enclosed in your letter, were founded mainly upon the affidavit of a man named William A Temple, described by the consul as being a very intelligent seaman, and also upon a statement made by a woman named Margaret Marshall, who swears that during her husband cruise in the Shenandoah, she regularly received an allowance which was paid to her have Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co., of Liverpool. In Temple’s affidavit he dwells amount other things upon the civilities exchanged, and the intimacy maintained between the governor and the officials at Melbourne, and the captain and officers of the Shenandoah, as upon the advice and assistance given by the government engineers at Melbourne, in the have pairs effected, while the Shenandoah remained in that port.

These statements were summarized in your letter under three general heads:

1. That the Shenandoah had left this country armed with all the means she ever had occasion to use against the commerce of the United States, that is to say, with the two I pounders which Temple swore were mounted upon her decks when she sailed from London and which, according to him, were the principal guns used during the whole cruise.

2. That Captain Waddell had been made fully aware of the suppression of the rebellion the very day before he destroyed a number of United States vessels in the sea of Okhotsk; and,

3. That the list of the crew, as furnished by Temple, effectually set at rest the pretence of Captain Paynter, of her Majesty’s ship Donegal, that there were no British subjects on board the Shenandoah.

Taking Mrs. Marshall’s affidavit first, I have the honor to state to you that Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co. declare the above statement to be untrue, and that they never paid any money to her or to the wife of any other seaman of the Shenandoah. I have the honor to enclose a copy of a letter on this point from Mr. F. S. Hull of Liverpool.

Passing on to the affidavit of Temple, I have the honor to call your attention to the annexed copies of two further letters from Mr. F. S. Hull, in which, by direction of Captain Waddell, he refutes the charge made against that officer of having destroyed United States vessels after he knew the war was over. It is no part of the duty of her Majesty’s government to defend Captain Waddell’s character, but as the charge was set forth in a letter which I had the honor to receive from you, I think it right to place you in possession of the answer which he has made to the charge, the more especially as you will learn from Mr. Hull’s letters that the man Temple, before offering himself to the United States consul as a witness, had already volunteered his services to Mr. Hull, and that though Temple knew he was born in Madras, and had never been in America, he, nevertheless, offered to swear that he was born at Charleston. Under these circumstances Mr. Hull refused to have anything to do with Temple, who thereupon transferred his service to the United States consulate.

Under all the circumstances connected with this man, as above explained, and as they appear in the papers which accompany this letter, her Majesty’s government consider that they are justified in regarding him and his affidavits as unworthy of credit.

I next proceed to notice the statement about the two 18-pounders, for the purpose of saying that her Majesty’s government have every reason to believe that that statement is not true, and I beg leave on this point to refer you to Mr. Hull’s letter of February 28, in which it is explained that the two guns which were mounted on the Shenandoah, when she left the river, were two signal guns.

The next point is the conduct of Captain Faynter, of her Majesty’s ship Donegal, and I hall leave it to that officer to explain, in his own language, the circumstances of the case, and the course which he pursued with regard so the crew of the Shenandoah. Annexed you will find full extracts from the report on the subject made by that officer to her Majesty’s government.

I shall equally allow the governor of Vici soria to speak for himself with regard to the alleged intimacy between him and the government officials at Melbourne and the captain and officers of the Shenandoah, and also as to the aid and assistance stated to have been endered to that ship by the government engineer at Melbourne, and I therefore annex a copy of the governor’s report upon the subject, feeling assured that it will be accepted by our government as satisfactory.

It only remains for me to add, as regards the propriety of prosecuting under the foreign enlistment act any British subjects who might be proved to have taken service in the Sheancloah, that her Majesty’s government were advised that it would be quite impossible with any prospect of success to institute a prosecution upon the uncorroborated evidence of Temple, and that the efforts to procure other testimony of such a character as would justify her Majesty’s government in proceeding upon it have been unavailing.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,