The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-25 00:00:00

FRENCH VERSION.

The Earl of MALMESBURY said it was his public
Jutland a matter of justice to remind their lord-hips of

&conversation which occurred in that house on T;urs-
day last, in consequence of an accaunt received in thi,
country of the packet ship Ethiope, on the coast of
Africa, having captured the French ship Regina Cceli,
which was then in a state cf mutiny, and whose crew
had been murdered by the African emigrants on boar 3.
He had then guarded himself by saying the.: he had no
official information of the matter, but the story, as tol
and repeated a week ago in many newspapers, anti by
Lord Brougham in that house, was t' this cfft.ct :—That
a French emigrant ship, going from the African coat to
a French colony in the West Indies, had been risen upcn
in the absence of her captain and part of her crew, by
some of the emigrants—that 11 Frenchmen had been
murdered—that the captain of the Ethiope, at the re
quest of the French consul, bad taken possession of her
and brought h,r into the port of Monrovia—and that
although the captain of the Ethiope had thus acted by
desire of the French authorities, two French men-of-war
bad come in and taken her off by force. That was the
statement made, and he then believed that statement to
be correct.

Bord BROUGHAM—I said nothing ai-out the
French men-of-war at all.

Lord Al AL NIESBURY raid that the circumstances so
related very naturally created consPerable excitement on
the evening in question. Observations were made by
several noble lords:on the system of obtaining emigrants
from Africa which had been adopted by the French Go-
verntnehithose obst rvalions b,irg very naturally in-
duced by the account which was then assumed to be true.
But it was only I dr, and a duty which he owed to the
French Government (though be bad not been asked to
do So), to state to their •ordships what the French offi-
cial account of those circumstances was. They had been
represented to her 111.sjesty's G pvernrnent through the
French Ambaesadcr ; and though there had been no
hint or request to him to inform their lordships f these
circumst ince3,the corsideied it an honourable duty to
do so. The noble earl then read the following commu-
nication

" /aria, June 18.
"My dear Count,—We first heard from newspapers,
both French and foreign of the deplorable scenes which
ooeutred on board the Regina Cee!i, on the west coast of
Africa. I have just received, and hasten to communicate to
you, the report on this affair, which I have received from
Lieut. Pointe], chief of the staff, to the captain command-
ing our naval station in those part. I annex the letter of
Mr. Protet and of the commander of Joreo on the subject,
in order fully to apprise you of the details of this affair.
The facts are briefly these :--The Regina Cceli, a vessel
sent to the west coast of Africa, under the command of
Captain Simon. with the view to obtain free labourers for
our colonies, arrived at Cape de Monte on the the 29th Oct.
last. The hief of that place strenuously urged Captain
Simon to select for his operations that position of the coast
above all others, and they both proceeded to Monrovia, the
capital' of Liberia, in order to settle the preliminaries of the
affair. • The president of that republic, en:earning Captain
Simon's plan, approved of it so highly, that he persuade,'
that officer to carry out his operations exclusively in the
territory of the Liberian Republic. Capt. Simon hastened
to pay into the hands of the local authorities the sum of
1,561 piastres, as passport duty, for the 400 free labourers
with whom it had been agreed he shou d be supplied in the
space of 40 days. this fact, by the way, conveys a good
idea of the value to be attached to the recent protests of the
Liberian authorities on the subject of our emigration, and
on which the British ambassador at Paris laid such stress in
opposit on to our own convictions. Be this as it may, the
enlistment of emigrants was carried on with the greatest
facility, and the greatest care under the superintendence
of the Liberian authorities, as well as of the agent of the
French
.government. 272 emigrants had already arrived in
theroadstead, sand the rest of them were ready to embark,
when on the 9th April while the captain and the government
agent were ashore, a quarrel arose on board between P. negro
cook and one of the emigrants, which caused a scuffle, and
ended in a general fight between the emigrants and the
crew, in which the second in command of the ship and 11
of his men were massacred by the emigrants. Capt. Simon,
who heard this disturbance while on shore, jumped into a
canoe, picked up one of his sailors who hal been thrown
overboard from the Regina Cceli, but was obliged to return
ashore, as his canoe capsized. Upon this Capt. Simon, se-
slated by the local militia and some 40 Americans whom he
hired by the day, attempted to recapture the vessel, and
thee cruistd about with two boats, so as in a manner to
blockade her. Matters stood thus on the 15th April, when
the Ethiope, a merchant steamer, commanded by Captain
Croft, arrived. The Ethiope had been sent for by a Mr.
Newnham, the British Consul, who also fills the office of
French consular-agent at Monrovia. When that steam ves-
sel neared the Regina Cceli, Capt. Simon, who continued
strictletevatching hisown vessel, went on board theEtbiope,
declared be was the captain of the Regina Cceli, and asked
on what terms he might accept the assistance of the
English steamer ; for from the very first he bad declared
to Mr. Newnham, in concert with the agent of the
FrelicViojernmeet that ire should reject the assistance of
the Ethiope unless the conditions on which that assistance
was to be elven had been previously settled. He received
no answer. The Spanish Vice-Consul for Acra, and a
French merchant, who were passengers on board the
Ethiope, explained to him that his vessel was being
taken possession of. Captain Simon then wished to leave
the packet and go on board the Regina Cceli, but was pre-
vented, seized, and consigned to the charge of two
English sailors. Meaewhile the Ethiope took the Regina
Cceli in tow, without encountering the slightest resistance
from .the emigrants, and proceeded on her voyage. Capt
Simon asked the Spanish Vice-Consul for Acra to beg for a
delay sufficient to-collect on land eight of his crew, two of
whom were wounded ; but Capt. Croft peremptorily re-
fused, and continued standing towards Monrovia, where
she arrived about 8 o'clock at night. The report of Lieut.
Pointel respecting this incident contains the following
passage : —' Mr. Manuel Leira, of Daroca, the Spanish vice-
consul, was indignant at the brutal conduct of the captain
of the Ethiope, and openly protested against abandoning
the eight Frenchmen. He moreover furnished Captain
Simon with a certificate to the effect that he was present
at the r time that his ship was captured.' On landing at
Monrovia, Captain Simon went to the French consular
agent (Mr. Newnham), infcrmed him of what had passed,
and deli: ered to him a protest against the capture of his
ship. On the other hand, the captain of the Ethiope
wrote to'.M.r. Newnham pretending to consider the act he
bad committed as tantamount to the rescue of a vessel
abandoned and adrift in the open sea. The weakness or
else the complicity of the Liberian authorities increas d
the difficulties of the caso. The insurgent emigrants
finished plundering the cargo of the Regin Cceli 'n the very
roadstead of Monrovia, notwithstanding the , presence of
the purser of the Ethiope, who was left in charge of tl'e
ship. They were then permitted to land and dieperse,
without even an attempt being made to seize those whom
their comrades pointed out as the murderers of 11 of our
sailors."

He would alio read a letter which had been received
from Cap'ain Croft, of the Ethiope :--
"Royal Mail Steamer Ethiope, Monrovia,
15th April, 1858.
" Sir,—l have the honour to inform you that, according
to your request, dated April 14th, I proceeded Apt ii 14th,
at 11 p.m., in search of the French ship Regina Coed, seve-
ral of the crew of which ship hal been barbarously mur-
dered by the emigrants on board, who hail afterwards
taken possession of the aforesaid ship. 6.30 a ns., April
15.—Arrived at Cape Mount, welt on shore, and ascer-
tained from the settlers that the ship Regina Cceli had beers
seen April 14, at 6 p.m., off Galinas. 8 a.m.—Sighted the
Regina Cceli off Galinas drifting about quite unmanage-
able close to the shore. 9 a.m.—Steamed close alongside
the Regina Cceli, at the same time discovered the master of
the aforesaid ship in a small boat without gunshot of the
pirates. The captain ofthe Regina Cceli informed me in the
presence.of several passengers that he had been watching
the aforesaid ship several days, but that the pirates always
fired at.i hal when within gunshot, and showed warlike de-
moastrations to any person or persons attempting to go on
board.. 9.15 a.m.—Held a parley with the pirates, who
finally-delivered the aforesaid ship, Regina Cceli, over to
my charge, upon which I sent my second officer, and seve-
ral of the crew of the screw steamer Ethiope to take charge
as a prize of the aforesaid steamer
of the Regina Cceli,
Ethiope. 9.30 a.m.—Steamed ahead, with the Rgina Cceli
in tow for Monrovia. 9.45 a.m.—When catting the anchor
on board starboard the prize, the chain of the starboard
anchor ran out, which brought the ship up suddenly, car-
rying away the towing hawser ; sent chief officer and seve•
ral seamen on board to weigh the Regina Copies anchor.
10.45.7--,Steamed ahead. 7.30 p m., April 15.—Arrived
Monrovia all safe with the Regina Cceli, and anchored her
off Cape Measured°, with officer in charge.
" April 16--Appointed Mr. Mackelvie my agent, and
banded the ship Regina Cceli over to him.
" A. J. M. CROFT, Mastif of the steamship Ethiope.
"J.G.C. L. Newnham, sq."
"Signed before me, in my office, at Monrovia, this 16th
day of April, 1858. ".J. G. C. L. NEWNHAIf,
Her Britannic Majesty's Consul."
It was quite evident from the account of the consul and
of the captain of the Ethiope, that they did not take pos-
session of the Regina Cce'i from any feeling of sympathy
with the emigrants, for they were looked upon as pirates;
but their object clearly was to obtainealvage. The French
captain having lost his ship, and not being able to make
a favourable bargain fer i(s recovery, preferred watching
it until such time as he could make a better bargain. In
spite .of this Capt. Croft did take the ship into Monrovia,
anti claimed salvage; the French captain prole- ted against
being paved— (a laugh)—and refused to pay the salvage.
)I.4ab:lY the Liberian Government had felt itself not
strouteerongh to interfere in the matter any further ;
avniedwthciefFer..e.pntcihintntth-of.war calling in and adopting the
their own hand, Simon, they had taken the ship into
make was one which The only further remark he had to
applied to himself. These circum-
stances showed that,tehr,ev ought never to place implicit
belief in the first
patty only. They had un'aowota story coming from one
And the French account. Re both the English account
that he wee
riseJ, and did nut rinderstancimthalleosti:atytliat the Liberian
overnment should have been
aummis to have the
hip retaken, and should then have dest-ted from further.nterference in the matter. He believed that,
stood,, we had DO right to interfere with that
shi the
law
Lord BROUGHAM said it *as equally, dangerous 0
give implicit belief to the second as.to the' first atatte
s_
ment, for they-were both statements fratn the rennet'.
titre sides. (Hear.) flow did it happen that when the lie
gine, Cceli was boar4-ech. timtnainacle4 biliito be taken
the
.emigrants? Did- that- •lidc like free ernigra.ioti%
(Rear.) There eould.,ng .be a shadow of- doubt-that
these'io.called emigrants aver: slave, Frou2ht down' to
be sold for the.puttoeornader the guise of free ernigra-

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