CAPTAIN JERVISsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, What steps have been taken by the British Government to cause the liberation of Henry 1788 de Wolfe Carvell, Esq., a British Subject, who, having proceeded to Lima as executor of the will of the late Michael Winder, Esq., also a British Subject, after the opinion of the late Attorney General had been obtained that the jurisdiction of the Court of Probate did extend to the said will, has not only been unable, through the connivance of the local authorities, to recover the property of the testator, but has even been prohibited from leaving Lima, though it has been certified by proper medical authority that his detention in that climate is likely to prove fatal to him?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONsaid, that this gentleman arrived at Lima in February last with the will of his father-in-law, Mr. Winder, and applied for execution of that will in regard to property in Peru. On his arrival, however, he found that a Mr. Winder, a natural son of his father-in-law, was in possession of the bonds which constituted the property in Peru, and Mr. Carvell applied to the Peruvian Government to attach such bonds as had not then been presented. In the meanwhile this Mr. Winder absconded. But then appeared Mrs. Winder, the widow of the father-in-law of Mr. Carvell, and she had gone out to dispute the will of which this gentleman had possession. Well, the Peruvian Government called upon him to remain in Peru, either himself or by authorization, to sustain his own case. He denied, however, the competency of the Peruvian Government to adjudicate in the case, and he applied to Mr. Jerningham, who addressed the Peruvian Government and requested that this gentleman might be released from the legal necessity of remaining in Peru for the purpose of carrying on his suit. That application was refused by the Peruvian Government. The case was rather a complicated one, and it had recently been submitted to the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown. The Government had their Report, dated the 26th of the present month, and instructions founded upon that Report would be sent in a couple days to Mr. Jerningham. The hon. and gallant Gentleman would not expect him to state then what was the nature of that Report or of the instructions that would be sent out.