SEIZURES OF 1886 AND 1887. 157 



the Thornton was seiiteuced to imprisoument for tliirty days, and to 

 pay a fine of $500, and tliere is reason to believe tliat the masters of 

 the Onward and Carolena have been sentenced to similar penalties. 



In support of this claim to jurisdiction over a stretch of sea extend- 

 ing- in its widest part some 600 or 700 miles from the mainland, advanced 

 by the judge in his charge to the jury, the authorities are alleged to 

 have interfered with the peaceable and lawful occupation of Canadian 

 citizens on the high seas; to have subjected their property to forfeiture 

 and to have visited upon their persons the indignity of imprisonment. 

 Such proceedings therefore, if correctly reported, appear to have been 

 in violation of the admitted principles of international law. 



Under these circumstances Her Majesty's Govern ment do not hesi- 

 tate to express their concern at not having received any reply to their 

 representations, nor do they wish to conceal the grave nature which the 

 case has thus assumed, and to which I am now instructed to call your 

 immediate and most serious attention. It is unnecessary for me to al- 

 lude further to the information with which Her Majesty's Government 

 have been furnished respecting these seizures of British vessels in the 

 open seas, and which for sometime past has been in the possession of 

 the United States Gov^ernment, because Her Majesty's Government do 

 not doubt that if, on inquiry, it should prove to be correct, the Govern- 

 ment of the United States will, witli their well-known sense of justice, 

 admit the illegality of the proceedings resorted to against the British 

 vessels and the British subjects above mentioned, and will cause rea- 

 sonable reparation to be made for the wrongs to which they have been 

 subjected and for the losses which they have sustained. 



In conclusion, I have the honor again to refer to your note of the 

 12tli of November last, and to what you said verbally to me on the same 

 day, and to express the hope that the cause of the delay complained of 

 in answering the representations of Her Majesty's Government on this 

 grave and important matter may be speedily removed. 



I have, etc., 



L. S. Sackville West. 



3Ir. Bayard to Sir L. S. Saclcville West. 



Department of State, 



Washington, January 12, 18S7. 



Sir: Your note of the 9th instant was received by me on the next 

 day, and I regret exceedingly that, although my eflbrts have been dili- 

 gently made to procure from Alaska the authenticated copies of the 

 judicial proceedings in the cases of the British vessels Carolena, Onward, 

 and Thornton, to which you refer, I should not have been able to obtain 

 them in time to have made the urgent and renewed ai)plication of the 

 Earl of Iddesleigh superfluous. 



The pressing nature of your note constrains me to inform you that on 

 September 27 last, when I received my first intimation from you that 

 any question was possible as to the validity of the judicial proceedings 

 referred to, I lost no time in requesting my colleague, the Attorney- 

 General, in whose department the case is, to procure for me such au- 

 thentic information as would enable me to make full response to your 

 application. 



From week to week I have been awaiting the arrival of the papers, 



