§ MR. H. BAILLIEsaid, he rose to ask Mr. Attorney General, Whether he is of opinion, that when an English Merchant Vessel is captured by an American Ship of War in the harbour of a neutral State, it is the duty of the Government to wait for the action and decision of a Prize Court before reparation and satisfaction are demanded from the American Government; and, if so, whether the Government would also have to wait for the action of a Prize Court if an English Vessel should be taken out as a prize from an English harbour; and whether the capture of the British Vessel, the Science, by an American Ship of War in the Mexican harbour of Matamoras was not a violation of International Law, and a direct act of hostility against England?
THE ATTORNEY GENERALsaid, in reply, that the question of the hon. Gentleman related, in the first branch, to a principle, and, in the second, to an assumed fact. With regard to the principle, there could be no difficulty whatever. He was not of opinion, nor did he think any one was, that if an English merchant vessel was admittedly captured by an American ship of war in the harbour of a neutral State, it would be the duty of the Government to wait for the decision of a Prize Court before demanding satisfaction; of that principle there can be no question. If the fact of the vessel being in a neutral port when captured was not in controversy, there was no question that the Government would not wait for the action of a Prize Court, or hold themselves bound by any decision at which it might arrive. Therefore, the other branch of the question falls to the ground. A fortiori, they would not recognize a capture in an English harbour. The question about the ship Science assumed a controverted matter of fact. It was not, he believed, admitted by the American Government, or rather, he should say, by the captors—because no reply bad yet been received from the American Government to the representations made to them—it was not admitted by the captors that the ship Science was taken in Mexican waters. He believed that there could hardly be said to be a harbour of Matamoras, and certainly if there was this ship was not in it. She was lying in the river; and while the officers of the ship asserted that she was in Mexican waters, that assertion was as distinctly denied by the captors. Under those circumstances, all that Her Majesty's Government could possibly do was to represent the facts, as stated to them, to the American Government, and, as they must in all cases, hear what that Government had to say. For the satisfaction of hon. Gentlemen, however, he was happy to be able to state, that, although there were in the instructions given by the American Government to their cruisers at Matamoras some passages expressed in language to which just exception might be taken, whatever they were intended to mean, nothing could be more distinct than were those instructions upon this point, that no neutral ships were to be taken in Mexican waters, and that if taken they were to be immediately restored. More than that, the instructions went on to say, that if under certain cir- 715 cumstances, as by the force of the tide or the necessity of passing a particular bar, vessels were driven beyond the Mexican line, they were still to be treated as within the protection of the neutral character of the Mexican territory. If, therefore, the cruisers of the United States had in any instance taken our vessels within Mexican waters, it had been done in direct contravention of the most clear and positive instructions given to them by their Government; and we could not doubt that, under such circumstances, that Government would immediately order their restitution.