Victoria, Cap. 75, passed to carry out the convention under which application has been made to the British Government to detain the above 7 prisoners. It is at the same time my duty to draw your attention to the stipulation of the above convention quoted in the same Act, as follows: that the expenses of any detention and surrender made in virtue of the stipulations therein before recited should be borne and defrayed by the Government in whose name the requisition should have been made.
The documents connected with the proceedings had in the Magistrate's Court in the case of the Albert shall be forwarded to you as you request, copies of them being made as soon as can be done.
You will of course have informed His Excellency the French Minister of the circumstances under which the 33 persons in question were first taken in charge. His Excellency the Governor is therefore at a loss to explain why, in his letter of the 6th instant to yourself, he should speak of the affair of the Albert, as "spontanément evoqué" by the Colonial Court in which they were examined.
The ship Albert arrived here on the 27th Septr., and as she showed a signal of distress, she was immediately boarded by the police, as any distressed vessel flying English colours would have been. Hearing of the fearful atrocities recently committed on board her, they naturally considered it improper to leave the large number of men found in her at liberty to make their escape, or it might be to proceed to farther outrages. They therefore took these people on shore to be subjected to examination.
No remark would have been made: