CO885-(10-11) — Page 203

2093.

No. 159.

(MALTA.)

:

MY LORD,

ADVOCATE GENERAL to FOREIGN OFFICE.

-

Doctors' Commons, January 24, 1863. I AM honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Hammond's letter of the 12th January instant, stating that he was directed to transmit to me a Dec. 27th, letter and its enclosures from the Colonial Office respecting the estate of the late 1862. G. Attard, a native of Malta, who was drowned in Siam in June 1859. That I should observe that it is stated by Mr. Attard's widow, who has petitioned the Governor of Malta on the subject, that the estate of the deceased, who was under American protection, produced after liquidation by the United States Consul at Bangkok a sum of about one thousand dollars, but that after a lapse of three years, 831. 118. only has been remitted to Malta in respect of the proceeds, but that the Governor of Malta suggests that the United States Government should be called upon for explanation and for indemnification, if it should appear that a loss has been sustained by remissness or unjustifiable carelessness on the part of the United States Consulate. He was also pleased to transmit to me the previous papers, and to request that I would take the case into consideration and furnish your Lordship with my opinion thereupon.

In obedience to your Lordship's commands I have taken this case into consideration, and have the honour to

Report

That Mr. Attard, the deceased, must be considered a subject of the United States. It is distinctly stated in the Despatch from the office of Privy Council for Trade, 1st November 1859 (volume, Siam 1859), "that he was not a British subject, and that "the British Consul had no jurisdiction to administer to his effects," consequently the American Consul was the proper anthority to deal with the whole question of his estate, and the report of that functionary as to the amount of it ought to be received as satisfactory by British authority, unless it be most clearly inaccurate or untrue. It does not appear to me that the report of Mr. Chandler, the late United States Consul, is necessarily open to either of these charges. It is true that he originally stated his belief that the estate would realise $1,000, and that there was a great delay, owing in some measure to change of consuls, and to a dispute about the nationality of the deceased, in the collection of the property, and that the assets eventually realised only $366, a fact which is thus accounted for in a letter of Mr. Chandler to the Governor of Malta, April 28, 1862.

**The estate was sold at auction in March, and the last of the claims were collected in on the 27th of that month. The last of the debts of the estate were also paid on that day. The claims against the estate were far greater than supposed, and after paying them there was left only the sum of $3661."

"

Bee no reason to doubt the good faith of this transaction, and looking at all the circumstances, I think that the American authorities cannot be made responsible for any depreciation (if, indeed, any has taken place—of which there is no evidence) in the

value of the assets.

I therefore do not advise Her Majesty's Government to require the production of vouchers, or to interfere further in this matter.

The Right Hon. Earl Russell, K.G.

&c.

&c.

&c.

I have, &c. (Signed)

ROBERT PHILLIMORE.

• 16278,--596. 25.-2/86.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

「 ༴། ། ། ། 。

Reference :-

C.O. 885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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