HC Deb 22 June 1852 vol 122 cc1193-5
MR. MONCKTON MILNES

said, he rose to ask Her Majesty's Government what steps had been taken to expedite the course of public justice in the case of Manuel Pereira, a coloured seaman, under British protection, detained in the prison of Charleston, in the United States, in consequence of the vessel in which he was employed having put into that port in distress, and in whose favour Mr. Matthew, Her Majesty's Consul at that place, had applied for a writ of habeas corpus on appeal to the Supreme Court of the State of South Carolina, in session at Columbia, which Court had now postponed the hearing of the said case till January next?

LORD STANLEY

was glad his hon. Friend had put this question, because he thought it desirable that public attention should be drawn, both in this country and in the United States, to the harsh and oppressive working of those laws of the Southern States which related to British coloured seamen. It was true that a British vessel, coming from Jamaica on her homeward voyage, having struck on a reef near Charleston harbour, had been compelled to put into that port in a sinking state. Among her crew was one Manuel Pereira, a coloured man, a native of the Cape Verd islands, and consequently a Portuguese, and not a British subject, though being at the time an articled seaman on board a British ship, he was under British protection. In conformity with the law of South Carolina, this man, on the arrival of the ship in port, was taken out of her, and lodged in the common gaol. The vessel was condemned and sold: the master and crew, after a short delay, the exact length of which was not stated, were able to leave Charleston; but when they applied for the release of Pereira, the master was charged with the expenses of his detention in gaol, and, refusing to pay, went away, leaving the unfortunate man in confinement. It was stated that Pereira had applied through the master to the Portuguese Consul on the spot, and to the Minister of his country at Washington, but that no notice had been taken of cither application. He then had recourse to Mr. Matthew, and these cases being unhappily not of rare occurrence, Mr. Matthew had received previous instructions how to act. A question arose, whether it would he better to apply to the State Court of South Carolina, or to the District Court of the United States: a legal opinion was taken, and it was decided to apply to the State Court. The circumstances immediately following were detailed in Mr. Matthews 'despatch:— I have to state that Judge Withers (of the South Carolina Court), attended by the State Attorney General, has received the application (for a writ of habeas corpus) in court, and has refused it without argument, reserving his opinion for the Upper Court, to which, consequently, an appeal has been taken. This court, which meets in Columbia in May, is empowered, if so inclined to take up, on petition, the hearing of the case, which would be otherwise deferred to the November term in Charleston; and an immediate hearing would be very desirable, as forwarding greatly, in time, the ulterior appeal (should such be requisite) to the Supreme Court at Washington. I am not very sanguine of success, however strong the ground of a vessel in distress, in the State courts: hut I can scarcely entertain a doubt of the decision of the Supreme Court; it will then rest with the Federal Government to enforce in this State the decision of that tribunal. And in another despatch, dated May 28th, which was the latest information Government had received on the subject, Mr. Matthew spoke of the case as still pending in the State Court of Appeal. With regard to the laws under which Pereira was imprisoned, he must observe that this was by no means the first time they had been the subject of discussion. The question was not a new one: it was one of great difficulty, and which required very delicate handling, for every one who knew anything of America, knew that there was no single political question in the United States, on which a greater diversity of opinion prevailed, or which had given rise to more party feeling, than that which related to the mutual rights and obligations of the provincial and federal Legislatures. Energetic remonstrances had been addressed to the American Government, on more than one occasion, and, greatly to his honour, by the noble Lord the Member for Tiverton, when Foreign Secretary. A relaxation had already taken place in the laws of one State, Louisiana, on this subject: and he confidently hoped that, sooner or later, the influence of public opinion on a nation which claimed, and justly claimed, to he one of the most enlightened on earth, would do away with enactments which, as they now stood, were a disgrace to any civilised community.