58 ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 



On the 21st of October, ISSG, tlie formal protest of Great Eritain was 

 recorded; and on tlie 4tli of February, 1887, the seizures having? been 

 made in August, of 1886, orders were given by tlie United States Execu- 

 tive to discontinue all pending proceedings, to discharge all the vessels, 

 and to release all the persons who had been arrested in connection with 

 the seizures. 



This order was in due course communicated to the United States Mar- 

 shal at Sitka, who chose, for some reason that 1 have never yet heard 

 explained, to disregard it absolutely. He appears to have expressed 

 the opinion that this executive order was a forgery. He declined to act 

 upon it. He did not act upon it until a much later period; and it was 

 not until August, 1888 — I pray your attention to this — two years after 

 the seizure of these vessels, that effective orders were given for their 

 release; and by the time orders were given for the release of these ves- 

 sels they were lying high and dry upon the beach where they had been 

 left to rot, in so worthless a condition that it was not considered worth 

 while to retake possession of them for the purpose of conveying them 

 to some port for repair. 



I make only one comment upon this story, and these indubitable 

 facts — that I think it would have been almost better if my learned friend 

 Mr. Carter had foreborue making that commendation upon what he 

 called the forbearance and statesmanlike humanity which had cliarac- 

 terized the Government and the Executive of the United States in this 

 connection. 



The vessels, the "AnnaBeck", the" W. P. Sayward",the " Dolphin", 

 the ''Grace", the "Ada", and the "Alfred Adams", were captured in 

 July and August of 1887. The last mentioned of these, the "Alfred 

 Adams," escaped from capture. The others were taken to Unalaska. 

 The officers and the crews were sent off to Sitka, taken before a judge, 

 and bound over for trial on the 22nd of August; and then, having been 

 kept for trial until the 9th of September, they were unconditionally 

 released. As regards the vessels, they were sold by auction by the 

 United States Marshal on the 26th of March 1889, excepting the " W. P. 

 Sayward ", in respect of which a bail bond had been given for her release. 

 Whether that bail bond was paid or sued upon I do not know. 



Mr. TuPPER. — No action was taken on it. 



Mr. Foster. — We suspended action on it. 



Sir Charles Russell. — It is uoti(;eable in respect of the vessels as 

 to which the order for release was sent at the date I have given, that 

 notwithstanding, after the great delay to which I have adverted, those 

 vessels were released at the time when they proved to be worthless, the 

 authorities sold the stores and other matters in connection with their 



equipment. • 



789 Now, what is the case which Great Britain has in point of law 



to establish in respect of these vessels'? It is clear that all that 

 Great Britain has to establish, to found its claim for damages for these 

 vessels in the first instance, so as to make what is called a 'prima facie 

 case, is the fact of the seizures: this is not denied; next, the fact that 

 those seizures were made with the authority of the United States: this 

 also, is not denied; and therefore, these vessels having been seized on 

 the high sea, the onus lies upon those who seek to justify those seizures, 

 to show that they were justified in making them. That state of the 

 case, I am sure, will not be questioned — that once the fact of the sei- 

 zure upon the high seas is established, and that that seizure was with 

 authority of the United States Government, the onus thereupon lies 

 upon the United States Government, in answer to the claim for dam- 



