"  Baron  Van  Zuylen  has  renewedly  expressed  great  regret  that  any
questions  should  have  arisen  between  the  two  Governments."

Mr.  Pike  to  Mr.  Seward,  Oct.  12,  1861;  ibid,

"I  have  the  honor  to  inclose  you  the  reply  of  the  minister  of  foreign
affairs  to  the  communication  I  addressed  to  him  on  the  8th  instant,  in
regard  to  the  reappearance  of  the  Sumter  at  Paramaribo.  He  staters
therein  the  character  of  the  orders  which  have  been  sent  to  the  colonial
authorities,  to  which  I  referred  in  my  last  dispatch  of  October  12  (Ko.
22).
536


CnAP.  XXI.]  ASYLUM   TO    BELLIGERENT.  [§  394.
''The  British  miuister  heie,  Sir  Andrew  BuchaDau,  expressed  in-
credulity and  surprise  when  I  informed  him  this  Oovemment  had  issued
the  order  in  question.  He  declared  the  British  Government  wonld  not
do  it,  and  that  the  United  States  would  not  under  similar  circumstances.
He  said  it  was  giving  us  an  advantage,  and  was  not  therefore  neutral
conduct.  He  added  that  Russia  asked  Sweden  to  close  her  ports  against
both  belligeicnts  during  the  Crimean  war,  and  England  would  not  per-
mit it,  alleging  that  as  Russia  did  not  want  to  use  them,  and  England
did,  it  gave  the  former  an  advantage  to  which  that  power  was  not  en-
titled. The  British  Government  held  that  Sweden,  as  a  neutral  had  no
right  to  alter  the  natural  situation  unless  it  operated  equally.
'^  You  see  herein  how  thoroughly  English  officials  (and  it  seems  to  me
all  others)  are  imbued  with  the  idea  that  the  rights  of  a  mere  belligerent
are  the  same  as  the  rights  of  a  nation,  in  cases  like  the  one  under  con-
sideration.
