MR. DIGBY SEYMOURsaid, he wished to ask the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, whether it is true that the British ship Laurel, laden with a cargo of guano, has been seized at Baltimore, and if he is informed as to the circumstances attending the seizure; and whether he is in a position to state the grounds, if any, upon which such seizure is justified by the American authorities?
§ MR. WILSONsaid, in the first place, he must explain that it was not the ship but merely the cargo that had been seized. The circumstances were these:—A British vessel was chartered to convey a cargo of guano from a small island lying between Hayti and Jamaica to Baltimore, lately discovered to contain that article. Upon entering the latter port the cargo was seized by the Custom House officers, but not the ship. It appeared that the Custom House officer was not in the first instance aware of the circumstances under which the seizure took place, but on application to the Secretary of State's office he was informed that two years ago an Act was passed by the Legislature of the United States to the effect that henceforth all guano which might be afterwards discovered by American subjects, should be imported into the United States in American ships, and treated according to the same principles as the coasting trade. That conse- 800 quently confined the trade to American ships, excluding British ships. The Board of Trade considered that that was a distinct infraction of the rights of British shipowners under the arrangement made between the two countries in 1849, which gave reciprocal advantages in all cases to the shipping of both countries, saving only the coasting trade; for, if this exception were to be made with respect to guano imported from a foreign possession, there was no reason why the American Government should not extend the same restriction to any other article, and thereby entirely annul those obligations which at present existed between the two countries as regards the foreign trade. The course which the Board of Trade pursued was to send a representation of these facts to the Foreign Office, which would, he believed, make a representation of them to our Minister at Washington, so that the whole subject would be brought under the consideration of the American Government, in order that this infraction of existing obligations might be stopped before it proceeded further.