deposit their arms, considering that their mission was at an end and that they were no longer wanted. Their existence as an organized body had virtually ceased. One, or it may be two, officers were in the armory, returning with the rest. No meeting was either called or held; there was no voting beyond the few, not exceeding fifteen, with whom the measure originated; no formal announcement of the proposal to dispose of the arms was ever exhibited.

Some of the members left the armory ignorant of any such proposition, though there, when in desultory conversation, among others, it was made and agreed to. It was the resolution of the moment, hardly to be characiberate act, and the impulse which prompted it, [it] seems to me, can be reasonably referred to feelings which would actuate men whose friends and former companions [were] with the forces to which the arms are asserted to have been forwarded.

The number of muskets did not exceed thirty-nine, if all were sent, for I am assured that there never was the number you have given (sixty) in the armory.

These facts are verified by all who can speak from personal participation in the whole of parts of them.

The British Guard comprises gentlemen who have large responsibilities intrusted to their charge, and whose absence from the city would result in irreparable injury to the interests confided to their care, and whose word may be received with every confidence as vouchers for the verity of the above statement. The injustice of an order which includes those parties to the act and those who were not requires no explanation on my part. I have before observed that it is not my wish or intention to justify the act; my objects is to explain its real import and to diminish the importance which, unexplained, it bears upon its face by stripping it of features which do not properly belong to it.

With reference to that part of your communication which has relation to myself, I would merely add that I furnish in proof of my official capacity letter, addressed to me and signed by Earl Russell and Lord Lyons, which, as part of my official register, I must request may be returned to me, and that I ma not aware that my accountability for the manner in which I may have fulfilled my duties extend beyond the source from which that authority emanated, and to which your letter will of course be forwarded in all its crudity.

In conclusion, I would say that Mr. Burrowes, to whom i shall exhibit my last communication before sending it, now says that he did tell you that the arms were intended for General Beauregard, but that he could not, from his own knowledge, state whether they were actually forwarded.

Referring to my last communication, I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

GEORGE COPPELL,

Her Britannic Majesty's Acting Consul.

H.

BRITISH CONSULATE,

New Orleans, May 16, 1862.

Major General B. F. BUTLER,

Commanding Department of the Gulf:

SIR: Having been well assured that a British subject named Samuel Nelson has been by your orders arrested and sent to Fort Jackson