The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-16 00:00:00

. , -

,Nt/

,

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY
_MORNING, JUNE 16, 1845.

squadrons, of every rank and order. The commander
of the English station will receive the same iniunction
in this respect ; and it will on either side apply not orly
to those cases of co-operation which are explicitly sti-
pulated by the treaty, but also to every circumstance
which may admit of the interchange of mutual civilities,
and the reciprocation of moral and physical co-operation
between the ships, the officers, and the crews of the two
squadrons. The duty of all persons on board the cruisers
of the two nations, while upholding their mutual inde-
pendence, will therefore be constantly to aid each other
in the execution of their respective orders, and to com-
municate to each other every information which may
tend to further the measures adopted, in all that relates
to the suppression of the slave trade.
With regard to merchant vessels and cruisers bearing,
the flag of otZer nations whose Governments have suc-
cessively concluded with France conventions founded
upon the principle of the right of search, and conform-
able to the treaties of 1831 and 1833, no change has
taken place in the state of things regulated by those
Acts ; and you will have to carry into execution, with
regard to them, the general ins,ructions already issued
by my department. I need only here remind you that
those countries are Sardinia, Tuscany, the Two Siciiies,
Sweden, Denmark, and the Hans Towns. It now be-
comes my duty to call your attention to article 6 of the
new convention.

That article calls attention to a fact well known to ail
the officers who have been employed during the last 30
years in the suppression of the slave trade.
All the vessels which engage in that traffic are fur-
nished with arms, such as swords, guns, pistols, and some
even have on board small cannons or swivels. This pre-
caution is indispensable to them, if it were merely for
maintaining in obedience with a small crew several hun-
dreds of negroes violently carried off from their families
and native land. _

But it frequently happens that the commanders and
crews of slave vessels make use of their arms for another
and no less criminal purpose, by committing acts of de-
predation and robbery, either upon one another, or upon
the inhabitants of the coast, or the Europeans who resort
to it. This is proved by the instructions given to your
predecessors, and especially by those given by the Go-
vernor of Senegal, on the 15th of July, 1841, to the
officers employed on the African station.
It is also a well-known fact, that almost all slave ves•
sels have on board double sets of papers, papers appa-
rently issued by several Governments,—false muster-
rolls, which enable them to assume the appearance of
belonging to one nation or to another, as they may find
occasion.

It is generally at St. Thomas and in the Island of Cuba
that these false papers are fabricated, and they contain
counterfeits of the printed forms and autograph signa-
tures of the different authorities of each maritime nation,
more or less skilfully executed.
You are acquainted with the provisions of the law of
the 12th of April, 1825, against piracy. You know that
this law considers as pirates, not only the crew of armed
vessels who commit acts of depredation, but also those
who sail without ships' papers, or either with papers
wh eh are not sufficient to prove the regularity of their
voyage, or with commissions issued by several different
powers or states—the word commission being here un-
derstood not only of letters of marque in time of war,
but of papers delivered to merchant vessels in time
of peace.*
In so doing, the law of 1825 has only restated and
confirmed the principles already received, the doctrine
which forms the foundation of our maritime legis-
lation, of the ordinance of 1554, the ordinance of
1681, recognized as an authority all over Europe,f that
of 1718, and of the decree of the Second Prairie], year
11. ; and these principles have always been applied by
our tribunals as well to French vessels as to foreign
vessels, without having given rise to any complaint.
You know, likewise, that in case, of suspicion of piracy
the law of nations, recognised by all civilized nations,
authorizes any ship of war, to whatever Power she may
belong, to detain the suspected vessel, whatever may be
the flag that she bears ; under condition of delivering
her over to the jurisdiction which has the right of de-
ciding upon the validity of the capture and the prosecu•
Lion of the crime.

Whenever, therefore, a vessel shall be pointed out to
you as suspected of acts which our Legislation considers
as piracy, according to the law of nations (in contradis-
tinction to those which our law merely assimilates to
piracy, and which are such only according to our
national law), you are authorized to detain the vessel, in
order to ascertain whether the suspicion is well-founded.
As the exercise of this right may nevertheless give
occasion to abuses, if not restrained within proper limits,
by the good feeling and discretion of the officers who are
invested with it, you will not forget that in such case the
causes of suspicion ought to be real and ;rave ; that the
verification of the national character of vessels and of
the regularity of their papers, if necessary to be resorte
to, should be limited to the measures strictly requisite
for accomplishing that object ; and with a displ,ty of
force and proceedings not justified by the circumstances,
would be on your part a reprehensible act, and would
give rise to well-founded complaint.
The law of the 12th April, 1825, does not view as an
act of piracy the mere fact of a vessel's hoisting a flag
which she is not entitled to bear ; it is nevertheless an
act contrary to -the law of nations—a fraudulent act,
which, if tolerated, would render it impossible to exer-
cise any police on the sea, or any observation of mer-
chant vessels by ships of war, even such as it is the duty
of a cruiser to exercise over vessels of her own nation.
If, in order to enable a French vessel laden with slaves
to escape your vigilance, it were only necessary that she
should hoist the flag of another nation; if this fact alone
were to render her inviolable, even when you were cer-
tain of her being French—that she was carrying on the
slave-trade, and that the flag which she bore was
usurped—every cruising 'station would become useless ;
you could neither repress prohibited, nor protect lawful,
commerce.

Whenever, therefore, you may have reason to suspeet
any fraud of this nature, you are at liberty to verity
the national character of the suspected vessel. If your
suspicions should turn out to be well founded, it the'
suspected vessel prove to be either French, or one sub-
ject to your observation in virtue of treaties actuallyin
force, and if such vessel be actually engaged in the slave
trade, you will not hesitate to detain her. No nation
can be entitled to claim, fur its flag the right of protect-
ing crime, and of withdrawing criminals of other na-
tions from the punishment which is their due. If, on
the contrary, your suspicions should be groundless, if
the suspected vessel belongs bond fide to the nation whose
flag she bears, you, will not hesitate to release her im-
mediately ; giving, however, notice of the fact to those
Cruisers who have the right to detain her.
In these operations you will never lose, sight, of the
fact, that you are acting at your own rikk and peril ;
and that if, through any act of yours, the suspected
vessel should sustain any damages, she will be intitled to
indemnification. In dealing with her, therefore, you
cannot act with too much circumspection. •
Signedrby the Minister 9f Marine.

* Report to the Chamber of Peers upon the Law of the
12th of April, 1825, by the Baron Portal. (" Moniteur" of
1825, vol. 1, p. 199.)
+. Speech of the Keeper of the Seals. Speech of M. Par-
dessus. (Session of the Chamber of Deputies, April 25, 1825.)