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at Galveston, and formed the subject of your despatch, he called your attention to an alleged assault, which took place partly in port. The magistrate on the spot took up the matter, but dropped it in deference to the opinion of the U.S. Law Officers.
He likewise mentioned a case at New Orleans, referred to in the same despatch, when the U.S. Govt laid it down that even where the right of local magistrates was undoubted, its exercise should be avoided, where the Police Regulations of the English Merchant Service were in question; and a case at Charleston, reported by you, in your despatch, No. 2 of Jan. 11, where as soon as it was discovered that an alleged assault, in which the magistrate had interfered, had occurred on board a British vessel, the complaint was dismissed;
a similar case occurred at New York. On the other hand, at Liverpool, where the U.S. crew of a U.S. vessel sued the master in damages for punishment inflicted on the high seas, the Court held it had jurisdiction.
I thanked George Seward for the statement, which he had made to me of the views of his Govt, but did not concur.