Arrested in New York in 1861.
On my arrival in New York I was arrested, searched, and confined in the Metropolitan Police Station while communications passed with Washington. On my demanding to be informed of the reason of my detention, the Chief of Police told me that an Englishman had been hanged by President Jackson for less than I had done; this was not very cheerful, and he added he expected orders to send me to Fort Lafayette—the place where political prisoners were detained—but he declined to give any reason. I was however released the following day, but kept under the surveillance of the police, which became so intolerable that I went to Canada, and returned home through New Brunswick to Halifax. The journey from Quebec over the frozen lake Temiscuata, through Fredericton to St. John's, was made on sleighs. I slept one night in the hut of a trapper, another at a log hut on a portage where I was detained for a day by a snowstorm. An amusing incident happened on this journey. At Grand Falls I was called upon by the Mayor, who wished, he said, to show me some attention and prove his loyalty to the old country, as he understood I was an envoy going from the Southern States to England. I told him he was mistaken, but he would not accept my denial, and insisted on driving me part of the way in his own magnificently appointed sleigh, and giving me a supper at a place called Tobique. At Halifax another incident befel me. The hotel in which I stayed was burnt down in the night. I escaped with my luggage, but none too soon, for the hotel was only a wooden erection and the fire very quickly destroyed it.
On our arrival home at Queenstown, we heard with great sorrow of the death of the Prince Albert, and of the probability of war between England and America, arising out of the "Trent" affair. I received a communication from the War Office, requesting me to send full notes of my journey across New Brunswick, giving approximately the size of the villages and farm buildings I observed, as it was proposed to march 10,000 British troops up by this route to protect Canada.
The reason of my arrest in New York was, I learned, that the authorities believed that I was conveying despatches and money and intended to cross the military lines and enter the Southern States. My father's firm being largely engaged in business with the South, there was some foundation for this impression. I should add that I received through Secretary Seward an expression of President Lincoln's regret that I should have been subjected to arrest, and an intimation that if I visited Washington he would be glad to see me, but I was then in Canada and did not care to return to the United States.
Political feeling ran very high in New York. I was passing one afternoon the St. Nicholas Hotel, Broadway, when I heard someone call out "Sesesh" (which meant a Southerner), and a man fell, shot down almost at my feet.