MR. GORSTasked Mr. Attorney General, Whether his attention has been called to the fact (as stated by the First Lord of the Admiralty) that the Officer commanding H.M.S. "Beagle" has, by order of his Commodore, held a Court at which a person, not a subject of Her Majesty, was tried by an unauthorized process for an offence not committed within Her Majesty's jurisdiction, and was, by sentence of such Court, put to death on board H.M.S. "Beagle;" whether such proceedings were warranted by the Laws of the Realm; and, if not, whether the person by whose orders the trial took place, the members of the Court, and the persons by whom the sentence of the Court was executed, are not all guilty at law of the crime of murder?
THE ATTOENEY GENERALSir, when one of Her Majesty's ships of war is lying- off the coast of land inhabited by savages, where no law prevails and no redress for outrages can be obtained from any Government or in any tribunal, and British subjects residing in this region are attacked and one of them is murdered by the Natives, it seems to me that the captain of such vessel is placed in the same position as is occupied by the Commander of Her Majesty's Forces in the field in time of war, and has the same duties cast upon him and possesses the same rights and powers. If this view be correct, I shall be justified in stating, in answer to the Question which is asked of me, that the person by whose orders the trial alluded to was held and the members of the Court and the persons by whom the sentence of the Court was executed were not guilty of murder or of any crime whatsoever. I should give this opinion with great confidence, were it not that the fact of the Question which appears on the Paper having been put to me induces me to believe that my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Chatham, who has earned for himself a great reputation as a lawyer, appears to take a contrary view and to consider that some of Her Majesty's servants have committed a dreadful crime, for the perpetration of which Her Majesty's Government are bound to subject them to condign punishment.