DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 557 



statutes relating to the subject, that she shoulU be detained in the 

 place of seizure, and that the legal proceedings should be taken in 

 the Vice-Admiralty Court of the Province where the offence was com- 

 mitted. It does not seem to be claimed by the United States' author- 

 ities that any damage to the vessel, or that any injury or incon- 

 venience to any one concerned was occasioned by this removal to 

 Saint John, and by her return to Digby, occupying as they did but a 

 few hours, and yet this circumstance seems to be relied on as aggra- 

 vating " the seizure," and as depriving it of the character of a seizure 

 made " to enforce a right or to redress a wrong." 



Another ground of complaint is that in Digby " the paper alleged 

 to be the legal precept for the capture and detention of the vessel was 

 nailed to her mast in such a manner as to prevent its contents being 

 read, and the request of the captain and of the United States' Consul 

 General to be allowed to detach the writ from the mast, for the pur- 

 pose of learning its contents, was positively refused by the provincial 

 official in charge; that the United States' Consul General was not able 

 to learn from the Commander of the ' Lansdowne ' the nature of the 

 complaint against the vessel, and that his respectful application to 



that effect was fruitless." 



333 1. As to the position of the paper on the mast. It is not a 

 fact that it was nailed to the vessel's mast " in such a manner 

 as to prevent its contents being read." It was nailed there for the 

 purpose of being read, and could have been read. 



2. As to the refusal to allow it to be detached. Such refusal was 

 not intended as a discourtesy, but was legitimate and proper. The 

 paper purported to be. and was, a copy of the writ of summons and 

 warrant which were then in the Registry of the Vice-Admiralty 

 Court at Halifax. It was attached to the mast by the officer of the 

 Court, in accordance with the rules and procedure of that Court. 

 The purposes for which it was so attached did not admit of any 

 consent for its removal. 



3. As to the desire of the captain and of the United States' Consul 

 General to ascertain the contents of the paper. The original was 

 in the Registry of the Court, accessible to every person, and the 

 Registry is within eighty yards of the Consul General's Office. All 

 the reasons for the seizure were made known to the captain days 

 before the paper arrived to be placed on the mast, and before the 

 Consul General arrived at Digby. These reasons were not only mat- 

 ters of public notoriety, but had been published in the newspapers of 

 the province, and in hundreds of other newspapers circulating 

 throughout Canada and the United States. The captain and the 

 Consul General did not need, therefore, to take the paper from the 

 mast in order to learn the causes of the seizure and detention. 



4. As to the application of the Consul General having been fruit- 

 less. The fact has transpired that he had reported the seizure and 

 its causes to his Government before the application was made. It 

 has been already explained in the previous memorandum of the under- 

 signed, and in the report of the Minister of Marine and Fisheries, 

 that the application was for a specific statement of the charges, and 

 that it was made to an officer who had neither the legal acquirements 

 nor the authority t state them in a more specific form than that in 

 which he had already stated them. The Commander of the " Lans- 



