British Government seizes a newly-built schooner under the Foreign Enlistment Act

Following the exploits of the British-built commerce raiders Alabama and Florida, the British Government moved to proceed with a test case involving the three-masted schooner Alexandra, recently completed in Liverpool and rumored to be bound for the Confederacy.  Customs officials seized the vessel under the Foreign Enlistment Act.  The case went to a four-day trial in London on June 22, 1863 that the Crown lost. (By John Osborne)