§ SIR GEORGE JENKINSONasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether it is true, as stated in "The Times" of Monday 22nd instant, that the Belgian Government hesitates to give its consent to the extradition of Marguerite Dixblancs, on account of a difficulty as to where she should be tried; whether, under the Extradition Treaty between England and France (in which country the murderess was arrested and confessed the crime) the Belgian Government has any right to withhold its consent to the extradition of the murderess, or to make any difficulty as to where she should be tried; and, whether any material difference exists between the provisions of our Extradition Treaty with France or Belgium, or any other civilized European power, and the Treaty between England and the United States of America, under which Muller, a Prussian subject, who murdered Mr. Briggs in London, was at once given up to the English officers of justice by the United States Government?
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDLord Lyons reports that the French Government had considered it necessary to communicate with the Government of Belgium before deciding the question of extradition. The French Minister for Foreign Affairs had explained that it was the invariable practice of the French Government, before deciding on a demand for the surrender of a criminal, to communicate with the Government of the country to which the criminal belonged. He was in communication with the Belgian Government on this subject; and presumed that the answer would be given at once, and that this necessary formality would only cause a short delay in the extradition. The Belgian Minister at Paris, to whom Lord Lyons had also spoken on the subject, had assured him that he had no doubt whatever that in the present case his Government would immediately, and as a matter of course, express their concurrence in this surrender. There is no Treaty of Extradition between this country and Belgium; but the Extradition Treaty between Great Britain and France of February 13, 1843, makes no exception to surrender on the ground of the nationality of the person 1682 demanded; so far, therefore, as that Treaty was concerned, the French Government had no legal right to refuse the surrender of Marguerite Dixblancs, whether she were a Belgian or a French subject. Our Extradition Treaty with the United States (August 9, 1842) made no exception as to the surrender of native subjects or the subjects of a third Power.