CO885-(11-13) — Page 545

15,602.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

CO.

885

12 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

MY LORD,

No. 263.

(SIERRA LEONE.)

LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.

Nov. 13, 1880. Office Jan. 10,

From Colonial Prom Colonial

From Colonial

We were honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Sir Julian Pauncefote's letter of the 12th ult., stating that he was directed by your Lordship to

Temple, 11th August 1881. transmit to us the papers noted in the margin, attending the murder of a black girl at Colonial Omer. Onitsha, West Coast of Africa, by one W. F. John, a native interpreter to a missionary To Colonial establishment, in which crime another man named Williams with his wife were alleged 1881. to be implicated. That Sir Julian Pauncefote was to invite our attention to the two Oce, Jan. 17, accompanying reports of our predecessors, dated respectively the 27th March and merch 11. 10th May 1878, and to the notes of the evidence taken before Consul Hewett; and he me March 21. (Sir Julian Pauncefote) was to request that we would take those papers into our Hewett, No. 4. consideration, and favour your Lordship with our opinion whether a commission, as To Canaul proposed in the Colonial Office letter of 1st July, should be issued under the Actare il 46 Geo. 3. c. 54. and 57 Geo. 3. c. 53., for the purpose of bringing the man Williams and once, April 1. his wife to trial at Sierra Leone.

In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have the honour to

Report

That we entertain some doubt whether a commission can be issued in this case. The question turns upon the construction of 57 Geo. 3. c. 53. s. 1. That section, after dealing with murder and manslaughter committed in Honduras, proceeds to treat with like offences committed in other places "by the master or crew of any British ship or vessel, or by any person sailing in or belonging thereto, or that shall have sailed in or belonged to and have quitted any British ship or vessel to live in any of the said places, or that shall be there living.' It has to be considered whether the latter words

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refer only to persons who have arrived in British vessels, and quitted them to live in the places referred to, or include all persons (limited necessarily to British subjects) living in those places.

We do not enter upon the arguments which may be employed in support of either construction, but say that upon the whole we incline to the opinion that the words are broad enough to include the latter view, and that therefore Williams and his wife may be tried by a commission under the statute referred to.

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

&c.

&c.

&c.

(Signed)

We have, &c..

HENRY JAMES, FARRER HERSCHELL. J. PARKER DEANE.

To Consul

March 14.

Howelt. No. 8, From Colonia!

ل

▲ 1291-844. 25.--12/84.

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