His family need him. We have four little ones and are entirely without means of support, besides being among strangers, for we had been here only two weeks when Mr. L. left home. For our support we have been entirely dependent upon my friends. Asking your immediate attention to this, I remain, respectfully, MRS. D. F. LUMSDEN. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c., &c., &c. Sir F. Bruce to Mr. Seward. WASHINGTON, August 28, 1866. SIR Under instructions from her Majesty's principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, I beg to state, for your information, the following circumstances connected with the distribution of the money received from the Japanese government on account of the Simonoseki indemnity. It appears that the second and third instalments of this indemnity, amounting altogether to one million dollars, were divided equally by the representatives of the United States, France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain, without reference to the admitted special claims of the three first-named powers. These claims, however, which reached in the aggregate the sum of one hundred and forty thousand dollars, left, properly speaking, only eight hundred and sixtythousand dollars to be equally divided among all the four powers. The share falling to Great Britain should consequently have been two hundred and fifteen thousand dollars instead of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which she actually received, and the surplus thirty-five thousand dollars had therefore to be returned by her for division among the remaining three powers. With a view to adjusting this error, I am directed to state that orders will be immediately sent to the proper officer in Japan to pay to each of the representatives of the United States, France, and the Netherlands in that country the sum of eleven thousand six hundred and sixty-six and two-thirds dollars, that being the third of the amount received by Great Britain in excess of her proper share of the indemnity in question. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Sr., &c., &c. FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE. Sir F. Bruce to Mr. Seward. WASHINGTON, September 3, 1866. SIR On receipt of your note of the 24th ultimo, I forwarded to his excellency the governor general of Canada a copy of Mrs. Lumsden's letter, stating the circumstances under which her husband was arrested as a Fenian raider, and I at the same time requested that the case might be investigated, as Mr. Lumsden's name did not appear on the list of prisoners who had been permitted to give bail. I have now the honor to inform you that Lord Monck, in replying to my despatch, says that the sworn depositions against the prisoner in question are such as to render it imperative that he should stand his trial. His excellency adds that it is intended to bring to trial without delay all the prisoners who have been arrested on charges connected with the late incursion at Fort Erie. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c., sx., &c. Mr. Seward to Sir F. Bruce. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 22, 1866. MY DEAR SIR FREDERICK: I commend to your attention the enclosed copy of a petition on behalf of Patrick O'Neill, a minor, who is alleged to be detained at Toronto on suspicion of being implicated in the late Fenian demonstration. In view of the circumstances set forth in the petition, I trust that, through your kind offices, the young man may be released and permitted to return to his relatives. I remain, my dear Sir Frederick, very faithfully yours, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. The Hon. Sir FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE, &c., &c., &c. To his Excellency ANDREW JOHNSON, President of the United States: The undersigned, citizens of Cincinnati, would most respectfully represent to your Excellency that on or about Sunday, June 3, 1866, a minor named Patrick O'Neill, aged seventeen years, was captured in the vicinity of Fort Erie, Canada. That said O'Neill is now held as prisoner in Toronto on suspicion of being engaged in the late Fenian movement against the peace of the Canadian people and the authority of the British government. Your petitioners would further represent that the parents of said prisoner are respectable, law-abiding citizens; they are aged, infirm, and in destitute circumstances; that said prisoner, being their oldest child, was their principai support, and the absence of his labor for the past four months has caused undue hardships to said parents. For these, and many other reasons, the undersigned do fervently pray that your Excellency may, through your high prerogative, intercede with the Canadian authorities for the immediate release of said Patrick O'Neill. In consideration of his youth your petitioners are convinced that, as the ends of justice have been satisfied by his long imprisonment, the dictates of humanity, prompted by sympathy for his aged and suffering parents, his age, and consequent ignorance of the magnitude of the crime he is charged with, justify the hope that your Excellency may be enabled to present the matter to the Canadian authorities, with the request that a spirit of mercy and forgiveness be extended in the present case. To the end that the prisoner may be restored to his liberty and return to his home, convinced of his former error, is ever the prayer of A. HICKENLOOPER, LEN. A. HARRIS, J. P. SAUNDERS, J. J. QUINN, M. P. GADDIS, Mr. Seward to Sir F. Bruce. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 22, 1866. MY DEAR SIR FREDERICK: Permit me to invoke your early attention to the case of John Sheridan, the subject of the letter of the 21st of July last, addressed to Mr. Thurston by Mr. Thomas Barry, a copy of which is enclosed. Should there be insufficient evidence against the man, it is not doubted that he will be promptly released; but if it shall appear that he has been concerned in the recent Fenian demonstrations, I trust that the case may be dealt leniently with; and I shall thankfully appreciate such good offices to that end as you may be able to afford. Very faithfully yours, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. The Hon. Sir FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE, &c., &c., &c. Mr. Barry to Mr. Thurston. Re JOHN SHERIDAN, TORONTO, YORK CHAMBERS, DEAR SIR: In this matter I was engaged professionally by the prisoner (a suspected Fenian) to apply for his admission to bail, on a charge of treason. I prepared the necessary papers and applied to the chief justice of the court of queen's bench for bail and habeas corpus, but both were refused by him. The only evidence against him is that of one Detective Armstrong, who states that in February last he was in Fort Erie, saw the prisoner there, who said he was a Fenian, and was in Canada for the purpose of getting places in which to store arms to be brought from the United States; that Armstrong attended a Fenian meeting with prisoner at that time, and he reported the facts to the collector of customs at Fort Erie. The collector corroborates the fact as to the report. The prisoner was arrested at Fort Erie on the 6th of June last, which place he visited by written pass of her Majesty's consul in Buffalo, for a peaceable purpose. The pass bears that date, 6th June last. The prisoner lived and was employed in the United States for some considerable time previous to his arrest. He has lately been removed to the new jail here and incarcerated with the other suspected Fenian prisoners. I would feel obliged by your bringing the prisoner's case under the notice of your government, as the case is one of great hardship, in which I think they should interfere. I am, sir, with deep respect, very truly yours, D. THURSTON, Esq., United States Consul, Toronto. THOMAS BARRY, Solicitor for Prisoner. Mr. Seward to Sir F. Bruce. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 27, 1866. SIR: It is understood that Robert B. Lynch and John McMahon have been recently convicted in a colonial court of Canada, and sentenced to death, upon a charge that, being citizens of the United States, they were actors in the assault made in the month of June last at Fort Erie, in that colony. It can hardly be necessary to direct your attention to the fact that the government of the United States is required, by the highest considerations of national dignity, duty, and honor, to inquire into the legality, justice, and regularity of the judicial proceedings which have thus taken place; and that, after making such a careful scrutiny, we shall expect to make known to her Majesty's government such opinions as the President, upon due consideration, shall adopt. With this view the United States consul at Toronto is this day instructed to procure, for the information of this department, a copy of the record of the trial and conviction of Lynch and McMahon, and also of all further trials and convictions of a similar character which shall take place in Canada. While no unnecessary delay in the examination of the cases which are thus expected to come before this government is intended, it may nevertheless happen hereafter that delays unavoidably result from past incidents, or from future events which cannot now be foreseen. I have now the honor to request you to take such proceedings as you may think proper, to the end that such applications of the consul shall be promptly granted. The President directs me to assure you of his confident hope that her Majesty's government will not only cheerfully comply with the request I have thus made, but that they will think it proper also to examine the judicial proceedings aforesaid with a careful regard to the rights of the United States, and to the maintenance of good relations between the two countries. Such relations are always difficult and delicate in states that are adjacent to each other, without being separated by impassable borders. For this reason it would be very gratifying to the President if you should be able to give me an assurance that the execution of the sentences pronounced upon convicted persons will be suspended if occasion for delay shall arise, in the manner before mentioned, to make it desirable. Finally, I deem it proper to say that the offences involved in these trials are in their nature eminently political. It is the opinion of this government that sound policy coincides with the best impulses of a benevolent nature in recommending tenderness, amnesty, and forgivenness in such cases. This suggestion is made with freedom and earnestness, because the same opinions were proposed to us in our recent civil war by all the governments and publicists of Europe, and by none of them with greater frankness and kindness. than by the government and statesmen of Great Britain. I am very sure that you will find that these recommendations of a policy of clemency and forgiveness, in the case of the parties concerned, are in entire harmony with all the suggestions and representations which this government has made to her Majesty's government in regard to the border aggressions which have been made on the Canadian frontier, and that they are also in harmony with the proceedings which this government has thought it just, wise, and prudent hitherto to pursue in regard to the violation of its own neutrality laws, which was involved in those aggressions. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. The Hon. Sir FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE, &c., &c., &c. Sir F. Bruce to Mr. Hunter. WASHINGTON, November 3, 1866. SIR: Her Majesty's government have recently had under their consideration the proceedings and finding of a court held at Swatow to inquire into the circumstances attending the loss of a British bark, Electricity, which vessel was totally wrecked on the Sal Rock, off Namoa, on the 14th of June last. Their attention has also been called to the circumstances that the Mischief, of Belfast, was lost in almost the same place on the 5th of May, 1865; and the British consul at Swatow reports that, in his opinion, a good light on the adjacent Cape of Good Hope would, in all probability, have prevented the loss of both these vessels, and would be of great service to vessels frequenting those seas. In this opinion her Majesty's government concur, but it appears to them that the dangers which at present attend the navigation of the China seas, as evidenced in the cases above referred to, suggest the question whether the time has not arrived for nations who have commercial relations with China to represent, through their respective legations to the government of that country the importance of the subject, and the mutual benefits which would arise were the Chinese government to undertake, as one of its regular functions, the exhibition of lights, placing of buoys, &c., in such places on the coast of the Chinese empire as may have been shown to require them. It will, doubtless, not have escaped your recollection that Japan, in her recent commercial treaties with foreign powers, has undertaken to construct lighthouses and lay down buoys, with the view of facilitating the navigation of her coasts and harbors, and considered both as a matter of principle as well as of practice. Her Majesty's government conceive that an effort should be made to induce the Chinese government to adopt a similar course. I am accordingly directed to express the hope of her Majesty's government that the government of the United States will be disposed to instruct its representative at Pekin to join with her Majesty's minister in pressing this matter upon the attention of the Chinese government. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, Hon. WILLIAM HUNTER, &c., &c., &c. FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE. Sir F. Bruce to Mr. Seward. WASHINGTON, November 15, 1866. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 27th ultimo, relating to the sentences of death passed on R. B. Lynch and J. McMahon in Canada, and stating the views entertained by the government of the United States on the various considerations of law, policy, and humanity which might be expected to arise in the course of the trials of the individuals concerned in the raid committed on Canada last spring. Immediately on receipt of that note, I transmitted a copy of it to her Majesty's government, and I await their instructions before entering at length upon the several and weighty subjects contained in it. The course pursued by the Canadian government in bringing these cases before the regular tribunals of justice, thus securing to the prisoners the full protection the law affords to the accused, and the readiness shown by them to communicate all such documents to the consul of the United States as may throw light on the justice of the sentences and the regularity of the proceedings will, I trust, satisfy the government of the United States that, while vindicating, the majesty of the law, the authorities do not conduct the prosecutions in any vindictive or harsh spirit. I am, moreover, authorized to state that the whole question of the disposal of such of the prisoners as may be convicted has been referred for decision to her Majesty's government, who will certainly be animated by the desire so to deal with it as to secure peace and harmony between populations living in such immediate proximity and separated by a long frontier so easily traversed. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. &c., &c., &c. FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE. Mr. Seward to Sir F. Bruce. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 15, 1866. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 15th instant, in reply to one of the 27th ultimo from this department, relative to the case of the Fenian prisoners condemned to death in Canada. I am pleased to learn from that note that the entire question of the disposal of such of the prisoners as may be convicted has been referred to the decision of her Majesty's government, and in reply to state that the considerate course adopted by the Canadian authorities is duly appreciated by this government. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. The Hon. Sir FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE, &c., &c., &c. |