232 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



opportunities open to the Chinaman in other direc- 

 tions are, perhaps, nowhere else so lucrative, but they 

 are more inviting to him for the reasons I have given. 

 It is to be said further that, while he may earn a 

 higher wage in America than at home, his expenses, 

 too, are higher. He pays here less than a cent of our 

 money for his sandals ; his boots cost him in Cali- 

 fornia perhaps five dollars. A mere comparison of 

 the rates paid for labor here and there, leaving out of 

 view other considerations, would lead to very wrong 

 conclusions. And, again, his country is not so over- 

 populated as is believed. Under an improved sys- 

 tem of administration, which would embrace the 

 working of mines and minerals, the construction and 

 operation of railroads, etc. , there would be a demand 

 at home for all the labor that would be available. As 

 things are, there are perhaps as few persons pinched 

 by want to be seen in the streets of most Chinese 

 cities as in those of the cities of Christendom. If, 

 then, the people of the Pacific States need Chinese 

 labor, they may safely encourage immigration ; when 

 they cease to need it, the Chinese will cease to come 

 to their shores. I mean by this that when the call 

 for labor ceases to be an urgent one, the Chinaman 

 will stop his migration in that direction. Even with 

 a great call for labor in all our Western and Southern 

 country, he cannot be induced to go to either. 



But the most important feature of the cor- 

 respondence of the year related to the treaty 

 for the extradition of criminals between the 

 United States and Great Britain. In Februa- 

 ry, 1876, Ezra D. Winslow, of Boston, Mass., 

 charged with the commission of the crime of 

 forgery in that State, escaped to London, where 

 he was arrested and held awaiting extradition. 

 On February 21st, Secretary Fish writes to 

 General Schenck, the American minister at 

 London, as follows : 



SIR : A conversation occurred on the 17th instant, 

 between Sir Edward Thornton (British minister at 

 Washington) and myself, in reference to the course 

 which might be adopted by the British Government 

 on a demand being preferred for the extradition of 

 Winslow on the charge of forgery. 



Sir Edward suggested that if his surrender were 

 requested it might be refused, unless a stipulation was 

 entered into that the fugitive should not be tried upon 

 any offense other than that for which he was extra- 

 dited. 



Whether this course, if adopted, glows out of the 

 proceedings in the Lawrence case, or from a desire 

 to make the extradition treaty between the United 

 States and Great Britain subject to the provisions of* 

 the British extradition act of August 9, 1870, 1 cannot 

 say. 



You will remember that this, act in section 3, under 

 the head of " Restrictions on Surrenders of Crimi- 

 nals," provides that no criminal shall be surrendered 

 unless provision is made by the law of the foreign 

 state, or by arrangement, that the fugitive shall not 

 be tried for any offense " other than the extradition 

 crime proved by the facts on which the surrender is 

 grounded." 



It the course adverted to be caused by the Law- 

 rence case, it may be well to say that it is believed 

 that Lawrence has not, up to this time, been arraigned 

 for any other than the extradition offense, and "that 

 no representation has been made to this Government 

 on the question. 



If such a course is taken for any other reason, it 

 may be said that Great Britain has on more than one 

 occasion tried surrendered criminals on offenses other 

 than those for which they were extradited, and such 

 trials afford a practical construction of the scope of 

 the treaty and of the power and rights of either Gov- 

 ernment as understood and applied by Great Britain 

 for a period of nearly thirty years after the ratification 



thereof; and I cannot imagine that it will be claimed 

 by Great Britain that either party to a treaty may at 

 w'ill, and by its own municipal legislation, limit or 

 change the rights which have been conceded to the 

 other by treaty, and have been practically admitted 

 for such length of time. 



I would also call your attention to the twenty-sev- 

 enth section of the act of 1870 (chapters 52, 33, 34, 

 Viet.), repealing former acts under which extradition 

 had, theretofore, been made: this section expressly 

 excepts everything contained, in the act inconsistent 

 with the treaties referred to in the repealed acts, 

 among which is the treaty with the United States. 

 It seems to have been clearly the intent of Parlia- 

 ment not to apply to that treaty any of the provisions 

 of the act inconsistent with the treaty, as it had ex- 

 isted and been enforced for nearly thirty years. 



In answer to the demand for the surrender 

 of Winslow, Lord Derby writes to General 

 Schenck, under date of February 29th, as fol- 

 lows: 



SIR : I have the honor to state to you that I have 

 been informed by her Majesty's Secretary of State for 

 the Home Department that the chief magistrate of the 

 Bow Street police-court issued, on the 13th instant, 

 upon the information of Colonel Chesebrough, of the 

 United States legation, warrants for the apprehension, 

 under the eighth section, clause second, of the extra- 

 dition act, 1870, of Ezra D. Winslow, who is accused 

 of the crime of forgery within the jurisdiction of the 

 United States of America. 



Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home De- 

 partment,' in communicating this to me, has drawn 

 my attention to the third clause, subsection 2, of the 

 act. which is as follows : 



"A fugitive criminal shall not be surrendered to 

 a foreign state unless provision is made by the law 

 of that state, or by arrangement, that the fugitive 

 criminal shall not, until he has been restored or had 

 an opportunity of returning to her Majesty's domin- 

 ions, be detained or tried in that foreign state for any 

 offense committed prior to his surrender, other than 

 the extradition crime proved by the facts on which 

 the surrender is grounded." 



And has inquired whether any provision has been 

 made by the law of the United States or by arrange- 

 ment that Winslow, if surrendered, shall not, until 

 he has been restored or had an opportunity of return- 

 ing to her Majesty's dominions, be detained or tried 

 in the United States for any offense committed prior 

 to his surrender other than the extradition crime 

 proved by the facts on which the surrender is giounded. 



The Secretary of State for the Home Department 

 fears that the claim advanced by your Government to 

 trv Lawrence in the recent case of extradition, with 

 which you are familiar, for crimes other than the 

 extradition crime for which he was surrendered, 

 amounts to a denial that any such law exists in the 

 United States ; while the disclaimer by your Govern- 

 ment of any implied understanding existing with her 

 Majesty's Government in .this respect, and the inter- 

 pretation put upon the act of Congress of August 12, 

 1842, chapter 147, section 3, preclude any longer the 

 belief in the existence of an effective arrangement, 

 which her Majesty's Government had previously sup- 

 posed to be practically in force. 



The Secretary of State for the Home Department is, 

 accordingly, compelled to state that, if he is correct 

 in considering that no such law exists, he would have 

 no power, in the absence of an arrangement, to order 

 the extradition of Winslow, even though the extra- 

 dition crime for which he has been arrested were 

 proved against him. and the usual committal by the 

 magistrate ensued thereupon. 



I have thought it right to lose as little time_as 

 possible in calling your attention to the intimation 

 which I have thus received from her Majesty's Secre- 

 tary of State for the Home Department ; and 1 have 

 the honor to request that you will bring the circum- 



