1834.] 
FALKLAND ISLANDS. 
509 
ures would have been taken for its effectual protection. As the 
Argentine government had gone so far, previous to the arrival of 
Mr, Baylies, the question would seem to have been deliberately 
considered, so far as deliberation can be predicated of the charac- 
ter of a people under such circumstances. 
With respect to the charges contained in the informe of Ver- 
net, it appears to be confined principally to extenuations and cen- 
sures of the charge. Mr. Baylies did wisely in returning it, and 
declining, in behalf of the United States, the honour and the privi- 
lege of presenting them as a party versus Louis Vernet, before 
the Argentine government, acting as judges and umpires, especially 
as that government had called Vernet into their councils, and sub- 
mitted the correspondence of the department of foreign affairs to 
his inspection. 
We will state, however, that Vernet admitted the material facts 
set forth in the note of the twentieth of June. He admitted the 
capture of the Harriet, the Breakwater, and the Superior. He 
admitted that he seized their papers. He admitted that he took a 
part of the cargo of the Harriet for his own use, and the use of 
the colony, before adjudication. He admitted that he imprisoned the 
captains and the seamen ; but he calls the imprisonment a pre- 
cautionary measure of police, because the colony was in a mutin- 
ous state, and there were only twenty persons in whom he could 
confide. He admitted the contract with Davison and Congar, and, 
although these captains were under duresse, he denied that it was 
compulsory : he declared that he was sure both vessels would be 
condemned at Buenos Ayres, and therefore he thought it best, for 
the interests of the American owners, that one should be profita- 
bly employed while the other was awaiting her trial; — a very 
honest desire indeed to promote the interests of the owners, when 
he was sure both would be condemned ! He admitted the stipu- 
lation respecting his personal interests. He admitted the oaths. 
He admitted that he made the contract as a private individual : he 
acted in a double capacity it seems : when acts of violence and 
piracy were to be committed, the criminality was hidden under the 
gubernatorial shield : when that well-known law, by which a con- 
demnation by a judicial tribunal is made necessary before the 
original owners of vessels can be divested of their property in 
them, was to be violated, and a swindling contract effected, the 
