Before
that gentleman the manifest of every ship is laid, he has to give
an American pass to each vessel; he is consequently able to
tell the exact number of rifles which have been shipped from this
country for the United States--information, I doubt not, which
would be very generally desired by this house. (Loud cries of
"Hear.") I have obtained from the official custom house returns
some details of the sundries exported from the United Kingdom to the
Northern States of America from the 1st of May, 1861, to the 31st
of December, 1862. There were--muskets, 41,500 (hear, hear); rifles,
341,000 (cheers); gun flints, 26,500; percussion caps, 49,982,000
(cheers and laughter); and swords, 2,250. The best information I could
obtain leads me to believe that from one-third to a half may be added
to these numbers for items which have been shipped to the Northern
States as hardware. (Hear, hear.) I have very good reason
for saying that a vessel of 2,000 tons was chartered six weeks
ago for the express purpose of taking out a cargo of "hardware"
to the United States. (Cheers.) The exportation has not
ceased yet. From the 1st of January to the 17th March, 1863,
the custom bills of entry show that 23,870 gun-barrels, 30,802
rifles, and 3,105,800 percussion caps were shipped to the United
States. (Hear, hear). So that if the Southern States have
got two ships, unarmed, unfit for any purpose of warfare--for
they procured their armaments somewhere else--the Northern
States have been well supplied from this country through the
agency of some most influential persons.
Pages:
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460