CO885-(10-11) — Page 712

6255.

MY LORD,

No. 567.

(SIERRA LEONE.)

QUEEN'S ADVOCATE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Temple, June 2, 1869.

I BEG to enclose a tabular statement of the documentary evidence which it would be advisable, in my opinion, for Her Majesty's Government to offer, in the first instance, to the President of the United States in support of the case on behalf of Her Majesty's Government, which has been submitted for your Lordship's approval. In selecting these documents I have thought that the extracts from the works of the Abbé Labat, Mr. Wadstrom, and Lieutenant Beaver might, with propriety, take precedence of the treaties and diplomatic correspondence as a narrative of facts antecedent to any controversy between the two Governments.

With regard to the correspondence, I have selected from the compilations printed for the use of the Colonial Office such of the papers us appeared to me to be required for the purpose of supporting the substantive case of Her Majesty's Government, reserving the correspondence since 1860 for future use, if it should be required for the purpose of refuting the case, which may be laid before the arbitrator on behalf of the Portuguese Government. I consider the title of the British Crown to rest on the

Treaties of 1792.

With regard to the proposition of public law, asserted by Earl Russell in his Despatch to Sir A. Magenis of April 8th, 1865, I do not consider that the burden liss on Her Majesty's Government to establish that proposition affirmatively in the first instance.

It is for the Portuguese Government, if it should rely upon the Treaties of 1825, to show that it was entitled by the practice of nations to presume such an abandonment of the island and the mainland by the British Government from its non-user of either territory in the interval between 1794-1814, and in the interval between 1816-1827, as would entitle the first comer to acquire rightful possession of either, and to maintain its possession against the reclamation of Her Majesty's Government.

I have simply asserted the proposition that the sovereignty over the island remains vested in the British Crown.

I enclose some extracts from the works of the Abbé Labat and Lieutenant Beaver, which are enumerated in the tabular statement, and have not yet been printed; also the copy of the correspondence between Mr. Le Mesurier and the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, which was forwarded to me from the Colonial Office, and have not yet been printed,

I have, &c. (Signed) TRAVERS TWISS,

To the Right Hon. the Earl Granville, K.G,,

&o.

&c.

&c.

o 16970,--184.

95.—-5/86.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

LTLC.O. 885

ILUTTAN ICED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

BE REPRODUCED

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

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