The Express.
London, England, 1863-06-30 00:00:00

SEIZURE OF BRITISH SHIPS BY THE FEDERAL&

On the order of the day for • committee of supply,
Mr. PEACOCK& roes to all the attention of the govern-
ment to the repeated seizures of our merchant vessels by the
cruisers of the United States, and their subsequent ad'
cation in the American prize courts. He wished to have
from the government a definition of what they deemed to
be lawful and legitimate teethe. He believed that a vessel
sailing between neutral porta and under a neutral flag was
engaged in legal tragic, whatever might be her cargo, and
this doctrine was so clear that he should not have repeated
it but for what bad recently been said on the subject by the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in another
The noble lord had said that the cruisers of the United
States had seized the reseals without sufficient ioquiry,
and that those reseals might really have been bound
to Matamoros. If that were the case, the noble lord
should know that they had beeo seized in violation
of the well known principle to which he (Mr. Pescooke) had
abided. If he understood the noble lord the government
declined to go into the tom Da of each • kr age, sad
was satisfied to abide by the decision of the America/ prise
courts. It therefore became an important question to see
how the law was administered in those courts. He must
mann that be distrusted the decisions of those courts.
The hon. gentleman concluded by moving for papers re-
Istiog to the decisions of American prise courts at Key West
The SOLICITOR.OENERAL said that if the boo.
gentleman had moved for papers connected with
any particular ship or any particular captain, her
Majesty's government would willingly have considered
whether the papers could, without iuommeeinceos,
be placed on the table of the house. But when
the hoe. gentleman moved for paper, is such general terms,
it was impossible for bur Majesty's government to amede
to the motion without aerial" inconvenience to goalies
negotiations. The hon. gentleman roads en exceed-
ingly streets statement when he said that her Majesty's
government repudiated the doctrine of damages. It me
true that in one case they only demanded and in
mother no damages at all. But why ? Simply became It
would be idle and undignified to proceed diplomatically and
ask for that which they knew they could not get, and which
they could not insist on consistently with the practice of
their own courts. Whenever there was a ease of .
suspicion manifested by the ship's own papers, the de
iria
nom of her officers and crew, it had slimys been the prac-
tice of the courts of this country to hold it to be M their dis-
cretion to refuse both costa and damages. But if &leisure
I were made where there was no concealment, no die
guise, so prevarication, no falsehood, exemplarydamages ought to be given. The advice on which
the government had acted was to manly as spinet
ourselves and in favour of the United States, these
principles of international law which we applied wheal
other nations and in favour of ourselves in former wars.
These were sometimes severe enough ; but if they were to
be relaxed, they ought to be relaxed not in our own favour
as neutrals, when they acquired their severity from the
operation of our own courts at the time we were pried**,
especially as the United States had followed oar law sad
embodied its decisions into their own. (Hear, bear.)
Lord R. CECIL eomplaioed that, in the American prim
court., the captor was both pkiotiff and judge ; and said
that, although we ought of course to listen to their dm'.
sloes, it was neverthlas the boundea duty of the govern-
ment to watch them with special are. Not only had they
inflicted injustice upon individuals, but they had made tn.
reend,ats strides in the assumption of a right to capture
peaceful traders. They had actually asserted that if a
vessel left England to go to a neutral port, and there
1•1111 proof that it WU intended et that port to sell the
vessel, remove the cargo, pay off the master and crew, sod
euheequently use the vessel to run the blockade, a cruiser
might seize and sell her.
Mr. COBDEN said be found himself is rather a novel
position, appearing, as he did, by implication, to take a part
adverse to the interest of the British merchant sod ship-
owner, while the noble lord who had just sat down wathair
champion sod advocate. With respect to blockades ex-
toadies over 2,W0 miles of comet, it was well-
known that be entertained so sympathy foe such
proceedings. Such a mode of earivying on warfare, by which • greater amount of evli inflictM es
neutrals the, on the belligerents themselves, might
be ?bjlirled to on the ground of lateral
Hs In net Wok that two maim siosaki reset.