AVES ISLAND. 433; 



subsequently occurring of tlie Britisli flag being spread as a carpet at 

 the threshold of the French legation, and the British representative 5. 

 himself under the protection of a generous ally, the Gallic eagle, daring 

 the Venezuelan officers of justice to tread upon it to arrest the criminal 

 with his plunder secreted in the house behind it, at the price of arous- 

 ing the dread ire of the British lion ! Whether this spectacle should 

 be assigned to the category of farce or tragedy some future dramatist 

 of Venezuela may decide. 



Now^ sir, I think the impartial judgment of every sensible and well 

 informed man may be safely appealed to for the decision that upon no 

 principle either of humanity or just philanthropy any of these repre- 

 sentatives, or all of them together, had any more right to act thus with 

 reference to Monagas and the others accused with him who are sought 

 to be brought before the courts of justice of Venezuela for the violation 

 of their laws, than they would have had to attempt by like means to 

 shield a murderer, a highwayman, or one who had committed rape^ 

 theft, or arson in Caraccas. 



The book upon the laws of nations that would sanction such extent 

 of the embassadorial immunity has not yet been written . And again : 

 the excuse preferred for the course of the foreign representatives at 

 Caraccas, in sheltering Monagas and his associates — that they were 

 political offenders — (if the principle of the impropriety of such repre- 

 sentatives interfering in, and meddling with, the local, domestic, and 

 political disputes of the country to which they are accredited, be re- 

 spected) — but enhances the degree of their outrage upon Venezuela, 

 and their violation of the law of nations. But the case does not end 

 here. If the second publication inclosed to you be true, the still fur- 

 ther extraordinary and inexcusable course is pursued of the foreign 

 representatives uniting as a party on one side, and exerting the moral 

 constraint that it may well be supposed they, professing to act for 

 powerful States, would exert upon the minister of a newly formed 

 Venezuelan government, itself comparatively weak and powerless at 

 that juncture, and constraining him to hold a formal conference and 

 negotiation with them respecting the disposition of the protected crimi- 

 nals, and of which conference and negotiation a diplomatic protocol 

 was written before they would consent that the laws of Venezuela should 

 be executed by the courts of Venezuela upon those owing allegiance to 

 it, amenable to them for their misdeeds ; and more, that they should 

 then venture to exact a stipulation from him for the Venezuelan gov- 

 ernment for the benefit of the alleged criminals that they should go 

 free from the country. It is true, as I have been glad to learn since, 

 that General Castro and the other members of the government have 

 disavowed the act and discharged the minister who signed the protocol. 



I ask you, sir, if Count de Sartiges^ Baron de Stoeckl, or Lord Napier 

 should receive into their residences at Washington any of the persons 

 who participated in the tumults at the mayor's election in this city 

 some months since, and which resulted in the death or several persons, 

 or if they attempted to shield a murderer or other felon from the action of 

 our courts or authorities by an alleged embassadorial immunity of such 

 residence and the secretion of the criminal therein, whether the gov- 



Ex. Doc. 10 28 



