The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1850-12-20

Seely, who was respectable attorney and coun-
sellor- law, in full practice in the city Of New
this government would not view with indifference |
the refusal of the Dutch government to pay him a
reasonable compensation for services performed
under such circumstances"
Your petitioner would most respectfully suggest
that the very special in which the services of
your petitioner were thus required was such as
naturally must occasionally occur, no less between
governments than with individuals, imposing ebli-
cations and duties towards third parties binding
in equity and good conscience in the one instance
as in the other Lord Palmerston, in illustration
of such a position, has said, with every SEEM
ing of perfect justice, that in the etiquette Of
lions, when debt or duty is incurred 10 subject
(of his own nation) with foreign government, for
services rendered 10 II under the countenance and
sanction of his own, the home government pays II
the foreign does not And such, in the common
occurrences of life, of services rendered by to
another individual, would be deemed due in deli
cacy and justice by a third, whose association in
the acts constituting an Indebtedness had blended
itself with the influences inducing the credit
The Secretary of State, in his despatch TO the
charge OF this government at the Hague, it will be
seen, further stated "his sincere hope that the
government Of his Majesty might adjust the claim
of your petitioner without further difficulty or de-
lay that there were circumstances attending it
which ought not to be exposed to the world by
means of application to Congress
That communication, and another that followed,
OF more imperative character, are hereto annexed,
with the application, by your petitioner. to the de-
paIfment which these communications were
granted, and so made. These communications
having been treated with discourtesy, and yet
naming wholly pnnoticed, your petitioner has
to your honorable body for such redress as,
in the view of Congress, your petitioner may
now be entitled TO ask, under the incidents of his
position, and of which incidents your memoriast
will further proceed to lay the detail before your
honorable body.
On the sixth day of August, Roumage having
probably discovered from The wife the place of in
fpfth .izxp Rrnn LItp hut al
on the morning of the day he had conducted him
to Brooklyn, and aware that both the minister, the
collector, aud, in fact, everybody, but the wife,
were ignorant of the place, called on the minister,
with six pieces of the jewels which had been
buried there-one, large sapphire stone, which, 1t
was stated by the minister, the Emperor Alexander
had given TO his sister, the Princess of Orange, and
for which he had paid, in Paris $l2, 900 another,
a large diamond, with notch in it, ccasioned by
the Tudeness with which the felon had forced it
from its settings, and said to be worth about $l7,-
600 another brilliant, of a long form; two large
pearls, of pear shape, which had been taken from
pearl ornament; and an emerald of square form.
Roumage, aware of the efforts which had been
made by William II. Maxwell, Esquire. as the
counsel for the prisoner, that William M. Price,
Esquire had been also retained Gas the minister APP
pretended by the Custom House and nominally)
as counsel for the prisoners that the Custom House
intended to insist forfeiture, and had also be-
come aware of the duplicity of the disclosures of
Roumage to the Chevalier Huygins, fearing defeat
in his hopes of sharing int the forfeiture, and knowing
and that, il he should be released from the arrest,
he had threatened his life-now thought il best to
aid the embassy by the accumulation of proofs for
the detention of the felon. He accordingly OBJ.
tanned, through the wife, from the buried box, aud
placed in the hands of the ministry, those six
pieces, requiring receipt acknowledging that they
were held in deposit. In accounting to the minis
ter for the manner of procuring them, he falsely
alleged, person had called at his residence who
had discovered in the possession of another per
some of the jewels, which he thought might have
been given or confided to him by the felon, Rou.
mage asserted that he had claimed and obtained
them by threats, and as he alleged in order that
they might be delivered to the minister and that
they should aid in the proofs OF identity that he
had been obliged to promise secrecy to the person
from whom he had obtained them; that if the mi
mister would also promise secrecy, he had the hope
of procuring still more, through the disclosures of
the felon's wife; that if the minister should show
| them al the custom house, the fact that he had
the m would be discovered, and would prevent his
procuring more.
| Roumage also required from the minister the re-
celt TO show that he had placed them in his hands,
which was given, with an acknowledgment that
| they were received in derosit and Roumage at
| the same time showed to the minister nbrela
of brown silk, with which the elon, at the time of
the seizure by the custom house, on the 18th, had
carried many of the Jewels out OF his house, thus
eiudDg. in presence of the officers of the customs,
| 81 izure of those jewels-Roumage adding, that
the officers had been GO simple as to let the feion
| carry the umbrella away without examining it,
Roumage (alluding TO those which had been buried
|
| ter that he knew there were other Jewels con-
cealed but that he could not tel precisely where
that he would endeavorto discover them-the wife
OF The felon, as he said, knowing where they were
concealed.
From the time of the arrest of the felon and till
about the I'D August French officer OF police of
The name ct Raymond, the only one who familiarly
spoke French, had been secretly kept, under the
direction of your petitioner, in the employ Of the
minister, to keep both the wife and Roumage under
a strict surveillance.
As the wife of the felon, she could not be ex-
amined against him; and Roumage had, as yet,
| committed no offence which could inculpate him,
and could better aid the purposes of justice at
liberty. Raymond, concealing his employment
nom them and the prisoner protiered his assistance
between the wife and the ieon, as well as Rou-
| mage, adfoitly obtained such Information he
| might be enabled 10 get, and communicated il.
And this had continued till about the 2lst Of
| August, when, on the morning OF that day, II was
| discovered Roumegc had suddenly disappeared, as
well as the wife Of the felon, and, il readily
| conceived, upon the facts already obtained, carry
| ing with them those Jewels which had been inter-
red GEAR Brooklyn, ana which, as yet, had defied
| ascertained.
Measures were immediately set on foot to dis
| cover the direction in which they had been
| taken; and, from that time, the restitution to the
Princess OF four. iifths of the whole felony after
wards obtained, II will be seen, depended entirely
| upon action in regard TO them out of the United
| States. Among the larger portion yet a us 10 be
obtained were those most interesting in family re-
| lations, and which were most prlzed--of which
| the recovery now depended entirely upon the
prompt action OF your petitioner and the accidental
knowledge by your petitioner Of the handwriting
| OF Roumage, even beyond the possibility, which
he had attempted, OF Disgusting IL; well the re-
sututon tothe government ofthe Netherlands ofthe
| engagement in writing Of the Chevaler Huygins to
koumaee for the $4,000 orins then In the possess
ION OF houmage, and which the government of the
Netherlands Justly deemed forfeited by him, for the
trencherous and felonious manner in which he had
hoped to escape with that portion of the lie wells not
delivered 10 the embassy, and which had been bu-
ned near Brooklyn,and for the disnterment also OF
the threeffths or more of the Jewels yet buried at
| Brussels, of which the wife of the felon alone
knew the location, and which in Brussels was
ELECTED ny the agent placed about Boumage and
the wife by your petitioner for weeks PRIOR 10 the
escape.