Incidentally it was pointed out in Lord Lansdowne's dispatch that the ammunition found on board the _Malacca_ belonged to the British Government, and was intended for the China Squadron. It subsequently came to light that the seizure of the _Malacca_ was no mere accident; but that the vessel had been waited for by the Russian cruisers acting on secret information from Russian agents at Antwerp. For several days no reply was vouchsafed by the Russian Government, and feeling in this country rose to such a height that the situation became dangerous. While the whole British nation was chafing under the indignity and affront, the _Malacca_ was being navigated by her prize crew, with almost deliberate insolence, through the Suez Canal on the way to the Baltic port of Libau. A British liner, in the eyes of the whole world, was made an ignominious captive, and, like a pickpocket in the clutch of a police-constable, was dragged away to judgment. The humiliation of the situation was aggravated by the fact that at Suez--a port of the English Protectorate of Egypt--the Russian officer in charge of the _Malacca_ demanded to be supplied with coal, water, and provisions. In spite of the strong representations which had been made by the British Government, nothing was done at St. Petersburg to alleviate the situation. The _Malacca_ reached Suez on the 19th of July and Port Said on the 20th, and on the 21st she sailed unconcernedly for her destination, which was ostentatiously announced to be Libau. Then at last the Russian Government broke the silence. Having inflicted the greatest possible humiliation on this country, they were pleased to accept the assurances of the British Government that the prize had no contraband on board, and to consent that the _Malacca_ should not be brought before a Prize Court. A claim for damages for detention was to be admitted, and the vessel was to be handed over to the British authorities at "some Mediterranean port," after formal examination in the presence of the British Consul. On the 27th July the terms of this agreement--so extravagantly indulgent to Russia--were carried out, and the incident of the _Malacca_ closed; but there remained still unsettled the fundamental question of the status of the volunteer cruisers, _Smolensk_ and _Petersburg_. Meanwhile, for the German liner _Scandia_, which had been seized on the 23rd July, very different treatment was reserved--she was released on the following day. The only public recognition of the protests of the British Government which was given by the Government of the Czar was the publication on the 3rd August of an official communication declaring that "the special commission" of the cruisers _Petersburg_ and _Smolensk_ had "expired;" and these vessels promptly disappeared from the Red Sea. But their mischievous career was not yet at an end. Although the Russian Government had specifically promised that they should not be employed