Municipal council, London. Covent Garden Theatrical Fund. Bank of British Columbia, (2 notes.) Inhabitants of Swansea. Chamber of Commerce, Dewsbury. Thomas Barras, Baptist minister. John W. Mathews, General Baptist minister. Anglesea Baptist association, Coventry. Inhabitants of Darlington. Inhabitants of Kingston-upon-Hull, (2 notes.) Peterborough Improvement Commissioners, (2 notes.) Commissioners of supply, county Lanark. House of Lords, (4 notes.) Miss Grace W. Lees, Northampton. List of newspapers containing reference to the "Tributes of Nations to Abraham Lincoln." The Scotsman, July 31, 1868. The Carlisle Examiner and Northern Advertiser, August 1, 1868. The Glasgow Daily Herald, July 31, 1868. The Evening Standard, July 28, 1868. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, July 23, 1868. Mr. Moran, chargé d'affaires of the United States at London, presents his compliments and has the honor to transmit herewith a letter from the Department of State at Washington city. He begs to say that the volume to which it refers will be sent through the channel named in the memorandum below. to Mr. Moran will be pleased to receive and forward to his government an acknowledgment of the reception of the letter and volume in question. No. 90.] Mr. Moran to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: Being anxious to act upon your dispatch No. 21, of the 16th ultimo, and bring the case of Colonel W. G. Halpin to the favorable notice of Lord Stanley before he should leave London to attend upon her Majesty during her visit to the continent, I sought and obtained an interview with his lordship to-day. I began by saying that you had sent me a number of documents establishing Colonel Halpin's American citizenship, his services to the cause of the Union as an army officer during the rebellion, and the fact that he was not at the attack on the police station at Stepaside, in the county of Dublin, in March, 1867, for participation in which it was alleged by his friends that he had been tried, convicted, and sentenced to 15 years' penal servitude. I further said that from a source which seemed to me to be deserving of credit, I understood that the Crown solicitor confirmed this last statement. As I had been instructed to avail myself of these documents when an opportunity offered of using my good offices with her Majesty's government for the release of Colonel Halpin or the mitigation of his sentence, I would with his lordship's permission place copies of them in his hands, and request his favorable consideration of the case. He cheerfully took them, and thanked me for bringing the subject to his notice. If it should prove true that Colonel Halpin had been unjustly convicted of being in the affair at Stepaside, his claim to release deserved attention; but his lordship added that Halpin may possibly have been tried and convicted of treason-felony, the overt acts in the indictment having been committed not at Stepaside but elsewhere. He promised to lay the papers before Lord Mayo at once, with a view to an investigation, and the favorable consideration of her Majesty's government, provided it could be shown that Colonel Halpin had been unjustly convicted as alleged by his friends. His lordship repeated that it was not the wish of the government to deal harshly with these prisoners, and I understood him to intimate that it was by no means its wish unnecessarily to prolong their confinement. As incidentally connected with the case of Colonel Halpin, I beg to call your attention to a letter from Mr. Scallan, the counsel for Warren and Costello, in the Times of yesterday, and to the editorial remarks thereon. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, BENJAMIN MORAN. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. To the Editor of the Times: [From the London Times, August 4, 1868.] THE JACMEL PRISONERS. SIR: Permit me to correct a serious error, into which you have fallen in the leader which appeared in the Times of Wednesday on the naturalization question. Referring to the only two members of the "Jacmel expedition" convicted-my clients, Captain John Warren and Augustine E. Costello-you assert that although the acts of these prisoners while in America were put in evidence at their trials against them, these acts were not proved as constituting the offense itself, but merely as showing the intention with which the prisoners came into the United Kingdom. Now that is not correct. Their acts while in America were not only proved, but were charged against them as forming an actual offense, distinct and separate from the charge growing out of the "Jacmel expedition." Two questions went to the jury in each case: 1. Was the prisoner connected in America with the Fenian organization there on the 5th of March, 1867, at the time of the Fenian rising at Tallaght, in the county Dublin? 2. Was the prisoner a member of the "Jacmel expedition?" On each trial the prisoner's alleged complicity in the March rising was supported exclusively by evidence of his acts in America; and no other evidence could by any possibility have been adduced in proof of it, because the" Jacmel expedition," according to the case made by the Crown, did not sail from New York until the 12th of April, 1867. But what is more important is the fact that if the Crown had failed in obtaining a verdict on that part of the case they should have failed altogether, because unless some one or more of the overt acts charged against the prisoner were found by the jury to have been committed in the county of Dublin, he should have been acquitted, for otherwise the commission court sitting for the county of Dublin had no power to try him, and the only act of the kind laid in the indictment was the Tallaght rising, which occurred while the prisoner was in America. It is therefore true that Warren and Costello were indicted, tried, and convicted for acts done in America. And, furthermore, it is true that if the naturalization law now passed by the United States legislature had been in existence at the time of their trials, and its operation recognized by the British government, their convictions would not have resulted, and to-day, instead of being consigned for a hopeless period to the horrors of penal servitude, they would be living and acting as free citizens in their adopted country. I am, sir, your obedient servant, DUBLIN, July 31. [Editorial.] JOHN T. SCALLAN. Mr. Scallan, the attorney for the prisoners, Warren and Costello, who, on coming to Ireland from the United States in the Jacmel, were tried and convicted of treason felony, writes to us concerning a passage in an article on the American naturalization bill which appeared on Wednesday last. Referring to the protest of the democratic party against the alleged punishment of Fenians for acts done on American soil, we observed that the case of the Jacmel came nearest to the assertion of such power, but that even in that case it might be technically held that the vessel was brought by her crew within British jurisdiction. We are now informed by Mr. Scallan, on the part of the two convicts, that they were each tried on a double charge-firstly, for having been connected with the Fenian organization in America, and having thus become accessory to the rising at Tallaght, in the county of Dublin, on the 5th of March, 1867; and secondly, for having taken part in the expedition and come to Ireland for the purpose of aiding the rebellion. Although our remarks did not apply particularly to the Jacmel case, and, indeed, rather excepted it, yet we have no objection that Mr. Scallan should refer them to that case, and if it be the fact that the prisoners were actually convicted and punished for being accessory to the attack on Tallaght, there would undoubtedly be an instance of that punishment of acts committed in a foreign country against which the Americans protest. But on looking back to the trial of the two prisoners we find the case for the prosecution was constantly directed to establish the guilt of the prisoners in respect of their hostile return to Ireland. Whatever else they might be charged with, the Jacmel expedition engaged the attention of the judges, barristers, and jury. In the trial of Warren, on the 1st of November last, we find it proved, first, that the prisoner was a member of the Fenian conspiracy in America, and had become Head Center for the State of Massachusetts. We are then at once taken to the Jackmel. We are told how, on the 12th of April, 1867, a party of 40 or 50 men, all officers or privates who had been in the American service, went on board a vessel that had been purchased for an invasion of Ireland. Of the moral guilt of the prisoners there could be no possible doubt. The party sailed without papers, or colors, or luggage, but had on board a quantity of arms of various kinds "packed in piano cases, in cases for sewing-machines, and wine casks, all consigned to some merchant in the island of Cuba." It was sworn that the arms consisted of "Spencer's repeating rifles, sevenbarreled Enfields, Austrian rifles, Sharp's breech-loading rifles, and Burnside's breechloading rifles, together with some smaller arms, a million and a half rounds of ammunition, and three pieces of unmounted cannon, which threw 3-pound shot, and were frequently fired during the passage." The whole case went to show that Warren was one of this party, and was cognizant of and participating in the evil designs. To this the evidence of the prosecution was directed; and to refute it the prisoner, who conducted his own case, used all his ability. Thus it is plain that the offense for which Warren was convicted and sentenced was a hostile invasion of this country, assuming it was made out that the vessel was brought by its crew into British waters. The evidence connecting him with the Fenian conspiracy in America was made subservient to the overt act of invading Ireland, and the sentence which he is now undergoing is the punishment of what was found at the trial to be an act committed within British jurisdiction. It may be mentioned that though the prisoner remonstrated violently against the refusal of a mixed jury, we do not find him objecting to the admission of evidence concerning his acts in America, and we must come to the conclusion that he knew the question to be simply whether or not he came in the Jacmel with a hostile intent within British jurisdiction. In the trial of Costello precisely the same features are to be noticed. The prisoner demanded a mixed jury, and it was refused. At the trial in November, Mr. Heron, his counsel, admitted that "the sole issue raised was whether Costello was on board the Fenian vessel. He admitted that if the prisoner was on board, under the circumstances stated, he would be guilty." Thus, if even the prisoners, being British born subjects, were indicted for taking part while in America in a conspiracy of which the chief overt act was committed in Ireland before they arrived, yet it was furthermore proved beyond a doubt that this was not their only offense, but that they followed it up by actually crossing the Atlantic, and coming as rebels and with materials of war into Irish waters. So that the case is not the same as if a Fenian whose acts had been wholly confined to America had fallen by accident into the power of the British government. It is worth while to hear the ministerial account of the affair. In answer to Mr. Mill, Lord Mayo stated, a few days since, in the House of Commons, that "the prisoners were convicted of coming to Ireland in an armed vessel and cruising along the coast with intent to effect a landing of men and arms in order to raise an insurrection against the Queen." "The only evidence," he went on to say, "given against them was of their being members of the Fenian Brotherhood previous to March, 1867, being the date of the overt acts in which their brother conspirators were engaged. This evidence was necessary to connect them with the Fenian society, and, in accordance with the provisions of the treason-felony act, to bring them within the jurisdiction of the court." From this it would appear as if the conspiracy with the Tallaght affair was introduced in order to enable the commission to try the prisoners in Dublin. But they might have been tried and convicted in Sligo without any reference to Tallaght at all, and this even though they had been Americans born; so that as far as the prisoners themselves are concerned there has been no injustice done. In this matter we have argued rather against our own sympathies; for it has been since made so doubtful whether the Jacmel was really brought within British jurisdiction, that were the matter to arise again we would rather see Warren and Costello liberated, as Nagle and the rest subsequently were. But we have felt bound to point out that the prisoners were found guilty of an offense which, under any intentional system, would be punishable by British courts. Of course, all we have said is independ ent of the question how far it is lawful in such a case to look upon the whole series of the prisoners' acts as one act, and also how far a nation has a moral right to punish those who have anywhere levied war against it in time of peace, if at any time the offenders should voluntarily come within its jurisdiction. No. 93.] Mr. Moran to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: In connection with my dispatch No. 89, I have the honor to forward a number of further acknowledgments of "The Tributes of the Nations to Abraham Lincoln," received since the 5th instant from various places in Great Britain. I add a list of the same, and am, with great respect, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. BENJAMIN MORAN. List of acknowledgments of receipts of "Tributes of Nations to Abraham Lincoln." Inhabitants of Barrhead. Improvement Commissions of Huddersfield. Municipal council, Hawick. Improvement commissioners of Stourbridge. Municipal council, Evesham. Municipal council, Plymouth. Municipal council, Burnley, (2 notes.) Grand Master of Grand Lodge of Scotland, (2 notes.) Inhabitants of Warrington. Municipal council, Nottingham. Municipal council, Dumfermline. Municipal council, Leith. Chamber of Commerce, Leith, (2 notes.) Municipal council, Edinburgh. Municipal council, Manchester, (2 notes.) Municipal council, Winchester, Municipal council, Oldham, (2 notes.) Inhabitants of Great Bardfield. Municipal council, Hartlepool. Municipal council, Berwick-upon-Tweed. Inhabitants of Wakefield, (2 notes.) Municipal council, Hereford. Municipal council, Salford. Municipal council, Yeovil. Municipal council, Walsall, (2 notes,) Municipal council, Kilmarnock. Municipal council, Bristol. Municipal council, Dover. Workingmen's Christian Institute. Chamber of Commerce, Manchester. Municipal council, Stratford-upon-Avon. Municipal council, Birmingham, (2 notes.) Corporation of Bedford. Inhabitants of Southport. Municipal council of York. SIR: Referring to my dispatch No. 93, of the 8th instant, I have the honor to transmit herewith further letters acknowledging the receipt of copies of "The Tributes of the Nations to Abraham Lincoln," together with a list of the same. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. BENJAMIN MORAN. List of acknowledgments of receipts of "Tributes of Nations to Abraham Lincoln." Municipal council, Kidderminster, (2 notes.) Municipal council, Neath. Board of Guardians of the Sligo-Union. Municipal council, King's Lynn. Inhabitants of Staplehurst. Chamber of Commerce, Glasgow. Methodist New Connection, Sheffield. Municipal council, Huntingdon, Municipal council, Halifax. Renfrewshire Independent, (2 notes,) and copy of paper-August 8, 1868. Cutlers' Company, Sheffield. Inhabitants of Devizes. Municipal council, Hastings. Inhabitants of Bridlington. Municipal council, Deal. Inhabitants of Ramsgate, (2 notes.) Municipal council, Scarborough. Union and Emancipation Society, Hawick. Working classes, Ipswich, (2 notes.) Municipal council, Dumbarton. Municipal council, Lymington. Working men, Hinton Martell. Municipal council, Ashton-under-Lyne. Welsh Baptist Association, (2 notes.) Municipal council, Kendall, (2 notes.) Cramlington local board. Municipal council, Tynemouth, (2 notes.) Municipal council, Bath. Commissioners of supply of the county of Fife, (2 notes.) Municipal council, Margate. Municipal council, Dorchester. Municipal council, Selkirk. Improvement Commissioners of the town of Bury. |
