11253.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.
Reference :-
885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
No. 142.
(BERMUDA.)
LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.
MY LORD,
Temple, October 31, 1862. We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Hammond's letter of the 29th October instant, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us for our immediate consideration the accompanying letters from the Colonial Department and the Admiralty respecting the proceedings of Admiral Wilkes and the United States ships of war at Bermuda, and to request that we would favour your Lordship at our earliest convenience with our opinion as to the course which should be pursued by Her Majesty's Government in the matter, and also in regard to the specific questions put by the Admiralty.
Mr. Hammond was further pleased, in a note of the same date, to say that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us a letter from the War Office containing further information respecting the proceedings of Admiral Wilkes at Bermuda.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands, we have taken this matter into con- sideration, and beg to
Report
That we have the honour to answer the specific questions put by my Lords of the Admiralty as follows:-
cargo
1. That an English vessel which has broken the blockade by egress from a blockaded port does not become released from liability to capture by an United States ship of war because on her voyage to England she has reached a British Colonial port.
2. That a vessel which has so broken the blockade, and has transhipped her into another vessel in a Colonial port, does not become thereby necessarily released from the liability to capture, she remains under that liability until she has completed the voyage of her bond fide destination; for instance, if she meant to run to England from the blockaded port, and there are proofs that such was and continues to be her destination, she will be in jeopardy of seizure until that voyage has been performed, and she has started de novo on another voyage from the port of her destination after her breach of the blockade. "Where a ship" (Lord Stowell says) "has contracted "the guilt by sailing with an intention of entering a blockaded port or by sailing out, "the offence is not purged away till the end of the voyage; till that period is com- pleted, it is competent to any cruizer to seize and proceed against her for that "offence." (Taffeon, Maria Shroeder, 3 Rob. 153, 4.)
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3. That with respect to cargo tainted by breach of blockade which has not reached its destination, but merely undergone transhipment, without any other breach in the continuity of its voyage, in a Colonial port, we are of opinion that it would be able to seizure and condemnation until it had reached the port of its destination.
4. We think also that the ship which knowingly took on board such cargo would be liable to seizure and condemnation.
5. We are of opinion that the authority (the dominium eminens) of Her Majesty does extend to three marine miles from the Northern Reefs. We think that these reefs must be considered as belonging to the territorial jurisdiction incident to the possession of Bermuda, so far, at least, as that between them and the island Her Majesty has a night to prevent the exercise of hostilities, and that if we are right in considering them as part of Bermuda, it would follow that Her Majesty's jurisdiction must extend for three marine miles from that point.
As we are desired generally to express our opinion as to the course which should be pursued by Her Majesty's Government in this matter, we think it right to express our opinion that the conduct of Admiral Wilkes, both past and present, calls for very strong remonstrances on the part of Her Majesty's Government to that of the United States.
It is manifest that he was guilty of a gross insult to Her Majesty's representative at Bermuda by disobeying in the most open and contemptuous manner the legitimate orders of his Excellency with respect to anchoring in the fairway, as well as by the greater affront of placing sentinels on Her Majesty's territory. It is equally plain
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