182 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



afflictions, and been reduced from 

 affluence to beggary by the unjusti- 

 fiable conduct of the defendant. 

 The plaintiff was now thirty-four 

 years old, and had long resided in 

 Africa for the purpose of carrying 

 on a traffic perfectly legal by the 

 regulations of all governments. 

 Having been long employed to 

 assist a person of the name of 

 Curtis, the plaintiff, in October 

 1S13, had purchased a concern, 

 known as the Bengara factory, for 

 a sum little less than 50,G00L 

 In March of the same year, the 

 defendant, as governor of the 

 colony of Sierra Leone, thought 

 proper to fit out an expedition to 

 the Congo (on which the plaintiff 

 was established), 150 miles from 

 the seat of his authority, and much 

 beyond its limits. The professed 

 object of Col. Maxwell, for this 

 im warrantable proceeding, was 

 the destruction of tlie factories of 

 all persons engaged in the slave 

 trade, which had been prohibited 

 since the year 1806, and in which 

 the plaintiff from that date had 

 had no concern : the expedition 

 was under the command of Major 

 Appleton ; and arriving at the 

 mouth of the Congo, with three 

 ships and a mnnber of troops, he 

 sailed up a distance of 60 miles, 

 destroying the commercial estab- 

 lishments on the banks as he pro- 

 ceeded. He fixed his camp in the 

 territory of a native chief, called 

 Mimgo Catti, and thither the 

 plaintiff was taken in custody, 

 while the soldiers of Major Ap- 

 pleton, after carrying off a large 

 quantity of ivory, and other va- 

 luable articles, burnt his factory 

 to the ground. The plaintiff was 

 ¥ent on board one of thfe ships ; 



and, after several transferences, 

 he was sent as a prisoner to Sierra 

 Leone, where he underwent the 

 mockery of a trial : he was con- 

 victed as a British subject, of being 

 concerned in the carrying on of 

 tlie slave trade ; and after remain- 

 ing for some time in the gaol of 

 the colony, he was put on boaid 

 an English sloop, conveyed to 

 England, and lodged in the town 

 prison of Portsmouth. , From 

 thence he was removed to the 

 Laurel hulk at Spithead, where 

 he continued in miserable durance 

 tor a space of six nionths, as a 

 convicted felon. He did not obtain 

 his release until the month of Fe- 

 bruary, in the year following his 

 first arrest on the Congo. On a 

 representation of the unjustifiable 

 proceedings of the defendant, not 

 only in confining a citizen of an 

 indei)endent State, but in arrest- 

 ing him, and destroying every 

 vestige of his property, far beyond 

 the extent of his jurisdiction, the 

 governmentof this country ordei'ed 

 that the plaintiff should be dis- 

 charged, and he was set at liberty 

 accordingly. Such being the 

 short history of the case, it was 

 quite clear that the defendant must 

 be responsible for his conduct, and 

 for the orders he had gi\en to 

 Major Appleton. After the una- 

 nimous decision of the judges in 

 Skinner's case, which occurred in 

 the year 1C57, and the law of 

 which had never been disputed, it 

 would not probably be contended, 

 that the governor of a colony was 

 not liable for a wanton excess of 

 the power intrusted to him. Re- 

 dress could not be hoped in the 

 colony where tlie governor was al- 

 most absolute ; and, fortunately, 



the 



