182 The Frederick G erring, Jr. 



4. If it were in any case reasonable to require an American 

 citizen against whom there has been a judgment of an inferior 

 foreign court to exhaust his remedy by appeal or otherwise in the 

 higher courts such a requirement is not reasonable in the present 

 case, where the appeal to the Privy Council, tried and heard in a 

 distant place, would involve great and ruinous delay and expense 

 out of all reasonable proportion to the amount at stake. The 

 party demanding respect for its judicial tribunals in such cases 

 must afford a reasonable opportunity for a remedy in those tribu- 

 nals, and it seems to me clearly unreasonable to require an Ameri- 

 can citizen who is arrested or whose vessel is arrested in the 

 waters of Nova Scotia to pursue his remedy for a few thousand 

 dollars to the Privy Council sitting in London, a remedy which, 

 as is notorious, imposes on the person who seeks it great cost and 

 unreasonable delay. 



A highly intelligent friend has collected some authorities and 

 prepared some observations in support of these several proposi- 

 tions, which will be found accompanying this communication. 



I have the honor to be, with high respect, 



Geo. F. Hoar. 

 The Honorable 



The Secretary of State. 



[Enclosure.] 



Memorandum by Honorable W. H. Moody. 



The Frederick Gerring, Jr., was an American fishing vessel 

 owned in Gloucester, Massachusetts, by Edward Morris. She 

 was seized by the Canadian steamship Aberdeen for unlawful fish- 

 ing within three marine miles of the coast of Nova Scotia, con- 

 demned by the Judge in Admiralty for the Nova Scotia Admiralty 

 District, whose finding was affirmed by the Supreme Court of 

 Canada in a decision in which three of the Justices concurred and 

 from which two of the Justices including the Chief Justice, dis- 

 sented. 



