The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-25 00:00:00

INFRINGEMENT AND ABUSE OF

TIIE INTERNATIONAL LAW.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—Although not personally known to you, and
feeling that my present address may excite a prejudice
against me and my cause, yet such is my opinion of the
generosity that actuates the minds of the guardians of
the English press, that I am iuduced to entreat of you
to lay before your readers the gross injustice with which
I consider myself treated, and the flagrant violation of
civil, social, and natural rights that I think have been
perpetrated in my person on an American in this country.
In the spring of 1841 I arrived in this kingdom with
a capital of upwards 10,0001., a large portion of which I
invested in saw-mills, machinery, &c., at Hull, but from
subsequent vexatious, illegal, and unjust proceedings, I
was compelled to relinquish my business, and to sacrifice,
in a great measure, my property.
In June, 1843, having in my possession some Treasury
notes on the United States of America, I was, at the in-
stance of Messrs. Bush and Mullins (solicitors), arrested,
and by them charged before the magistrates at Guild-
hall with having committed a forgery on parties in the
United States. On the representation of said solicitors,
who prayed for a remand to enable them to procure evi-
dence from the United States to support the charge
against me, I was subjected to remands from time to
time for the period of four months, during which time I
was confined in the Compter prison. On the sth of
October, 1843, I was taken to Guildhall for the, purpose
of obtaining my discharge from the city magistrates.
The prosecuting solicitors, anticipating that I should
be discharged, as they had not been able to
procure evidence to substantiate the charge, they
had obtained a warrant from her Majesty's
Secretary of State, and on it had me removed
before the Bow-street magistracy, assuming that
the city magistrates were not competent to adjudicate
the charge against me. After a patient investigation
before Mr. Jardine I was discharged: The charge at
different examinations had assumed different forms and
features to suit the purposes of my prosecutors. My
funds in London, to the amount of between three and
four thousand pounds, had been attached ; my papers,
accounts, and even my most private correspondence,
were in the course of proceedings seized and examined,
and the prosecution then assumed a civil form. Messrs.
Bush and Muffins, on the ground that I was in-
debted to J. Little and Co., of New York, had me
thrown into the debtors' prison. In order to obtain my
release I was compelled to leave my money under at-
tachment as security, whilst I consented to a commission
being sent to the United States, that the prosecution
might if possible rake up evidence against me. Two
years expire, and that commission is not fulfilled, and I
have been subjected to the vexatious proceedings of a
bill of discovery. In the meantime I instituted suits for
damages to my person and property, and for the reco-
very of my money held under attachment. The Re-
corder appointed the 7th of October for a hearing of the
case ; but the prosecutors aforesaid defeated my
object and the arrangement of the Learned Recorder,
by having me arrested on the sth inst. I was sick : I
had for weeks been confined to my bed I had just
risen from it. I was taken upon a warrant obtained
through the medium of his Excellency the United States'
Minister. I was confined in a cold cell at the Bow-
street police station, and on the next day brought before
Mr. Hall, who, upon ex park statements and the deposi-
tions upon which he granted the warrant, and without
affording me an opportunity to rebut those statements,
committed me for transmission to New York for trial.
The old charge of forgery is renewed against me : and
in an article of this kind I cannot trace its ramifications,
but I solemnly say the charge is false, the prosecution
unfounded, and the evidence adduced to sustain it con-
tradictory and paradoxical in the extreme. But were I
guilty, which I again emphatically declare I am not—l
contend that my arrest is illegal. I have been arrested
and committed under the International Treaty, which
was not ratified until August, 1842, whilst the crime
with which I am charged is alleged to have been com-
mitted in April, 1841. The Constitution of the United
States of America expressly states that no " Bill of
attainder or ex post. facto law shall bo passed." Hence
my arrest and imprisonment is quite at variance with
the Constitution of my native country, and every prin-
ciple of English law and justice. I have applied for and
obtained a habeas corpus to have my case disposed of by
high legal authority in this country, before I am forced
out of it a prisoner to New York. lam convinced that
Englishmen, who are proverbially lovers of fair play and
equal justice, will denounce as tyrannically illegal, un-
just, and oppressive, the treatment I have received, and
am still subjected to, in their land of freedom.
Apologising to you, Mr. Editor, for thus trespassing
upon your time and valuable columns, and hoping that
the persecution and suffering I endure will be deemed an
excuse for this otherwise unwarrantable intrusion, I am,
Sir, your obedient servant, J. C. CLINTON.
Westminster Bridewell, Oct. 22.

THE NEW BISHOP-DOING
HOMAGE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—As the new Bishop, after his consecration, will
be required to do homage to her Majesty, before he will
be entitled to enter upon the temporalities of the see,
perhaps the following extract, explaining the grounds
upon which the Crown claims the right to ecclesiastical
property, and also the form of homage required to be
performed, may not be uninteresting to many of your
readers.

Extract from the preamble of Act of Ist James I. c. 3.
" Whereas all the Archbishoprics and Bishoprics
within this realm, were in ancient times founded by his
Majesty's most noble progenitors, Kings of this realm,
and in respect thereof, his Majesty is lawful and rightful
patron of all and every of the same," &c. &c.
BISHOP'S OATH ON DOING HOMAGE.

" I - Bishop of - will be faithful and true, and
faith and truth will lead unto you, our Sovereign Lady,
and your Heirs, Kings of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, and I will do, and fully acknowledge
the services of the lands which I now claim to hold of
you, as in right of the Church. So help me God."
I am, Sir, yours &c.,
WITNESS.
Ilfracombe, Nov. 12, 1845.